Summer Series Survey Results
At the conclusion of our summer teaching series, “When Ancient Meets Current,” we asked for your feedback on the teaching series and our worship services in general. We received more than 100 responses to the survey with a lot of helpful insight and feedback.
Our elders have reviewed the survey results, and we wanted to share with you 1) the quantitative results of the survey, as well as 2) some of the qualitative take-aways the elders have gleaned from the various comments.
Regarding the qualitative results, keep in mind there were more than 16-pages of individual comments (i.e., qualitative results), and many of these were repetitive in one form or another. Some responses were outliers that proved interesting, and sometimes humorous, but did not represent the main streams expressed within the survey responses. We’ve tried to boil all of these comments into some summary bullet points that we are and will be discussing.
Below are the results from the quantitative survey questions, and then general takeaways from the qualitative responses.
Poor
Not Great
Ok
Good
Great
Clarity of each week’s sermon
5%
38%
57%
Relevance of sermon to today’s issues
4%
24%
72%
Application of sermon to you personally
1%
8%
41%
50%
Series pace
1%
9%
42%
48%
Overall evaluation of When Ancient Meets Current
1%
5%
29%
65%
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly Agree
The emphasis on ancient Christianity this summer has led me to deeper place of worship.
1%
9%
59%
31%
It is important to know and understand the historic creeds and hymns of the church.
11%
49%
40%
First Family is balanced when it comes to its emphasis on historic vs. current elements in worship.
14%
54%
32%
I know most of the songs we sing during a worship service.
1%
16%
54%
29%
The worship services are too long for my preference.
48%
45%
7%
The sermons are too long for my preferences.
48%
45%
7%
We sing too many new songs too often.
25%
63%
11%
1%
We repeat the same songs too often.
29%
53%
18%
We should observe communion less frequently.
56%
31%
13%
Experience Often
Experience Seldom
N/A
Help you know you are forgiven
90%
7%
3%
A part of the Kingdom of God
86%
8%
6%
Learn more about God
83%
12%
5%
Encourage you to a more faithful life
82%
13%
5%
Know God more fully
84%
11%
5%
Sense of being in God’s presence
83%
11%
6%
Feel part of a larger church community
77%
15%
8%
Motivate you to share your faith with others
71%
23%
6%
Renew your spirit
84%
11%
5%
Prepare you to face everyday challenges
82%
13%
5%
Deepen your faith
80%
15%
5%
Take-Aways from the Qualitative Results
General
We can’t please everyone, nor should we try.
Overall, there is a great level of satisfaction and appreciation for the format of our worship services. More than 90 percent of the respondents rated our worship services as “Good” or “Great,” with God’s gracious forgiveness, and the resulting human response, being the doctrinal concept most often experienced.
We need to introduce new worship/teaching components, even when they may not be initially popular, to keep our services fresh and relevant. It is important, however, to communicate the reason for the changes and connect the change to an overarching purpose.
The most important function of the worship service is to connect people with the Lord through the message and the music.
Platform leadership matters in all aspects of the service.
Teaching Aspects
Our people appreciate sound, doctrinal teaching (truth). They desire it and are grateful it.
The survey also indicated our people desire relevance/application from the individual weekly messages. A continual view to fleshing out in real life what we believe helps the messages and services “stick” throughout the week.
Many like the live questions during the messages. The questions create a sense of being approachable and adds an element of engagement that is appreciated.
Worship Aspects
Many like a balance between contemporary worship music and traditional hymns, although, if anything, more people expressed a desire for more of the content-rich, gospel-soaked hymns.
In contrasting hymns vs. contemporary songs, the survey suggests the hymns, whether old or new, provide more meaning to people while the contemporary songs can, at times, tend to be repetitive to the point of being monotonous, losing their meaning. In fact, unnecessary repetition seemed to be the element that made the length of our service become uncomfortable, even though, statistically speaking, an overwhelming majority of FFCers (93%) stated that the service and message are not too long for their preference.
While some appreciated the creeds we recited, more embraced and enjoyed the congregational and/or responsive Scripture readings as it seemed less coerced.