Data about Worship Practices
Helpful data websites about worship practices.
It may be both interesting and helpful for those who plan worship to study some surveys and statistics about churches today. Here are some websites to help you get started.
The authority of the scriptures remains high in our churches. But did you know that there is a radical increase in the understanding of the authority of the Holy Spirit and a dramatic decrease in the emphasis on historic creeds in churches that use electronic instruments? Faith Communities Today: A Report On Religion in the United States Today, a fascinating study of congregations representing 41 denominations and faith groups, provides these statistics as well as data on worship change, vitality, conflict, and style. Information is found on pages 34-38 and 40-42 of the study, which is available with the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader. http://fact.hartsem.edu/Final%20FACTrpt.pdf
Did you know that only 8% of Presbyterian Church (USA) membership would consider their Sunday morning worship contemporary? View this information as well as other interesting statistics on worship within the PCUSA found through the Presbyterian Church (USA) May 2000 Panel Summary on Public Worship: http://www.pcusa.org/research/panel/summaries/0500summaries.pdf
The Presbyterian Church (USA) periodical, Monday Morning, contains PCUSA worship research articles interpreting data from the May 2000 Panel Survey:
- Nearly 60% of members under 40 prefer traditional worship. See this and other statistics on worship preferences.
- Did you know that the most popular hour for Sunday morning worship is 11:00? View this information as well as additional statistics on worship service times and frequency.
- View opinions from the pews of churches concerning worship setting, timing, style, and content.
- Have you considered that the perceptions of your elders regarding the style of your worship services may be different than those of the general membership? See what was found in the PCUSA.
- See an index of all PCUSA Panel reports (going back to 1993).
- Over half of the youth in America attend church on a given Sunday. How does this compare in relationship with other sources of spiritual growth? See the Barna Research on Teenagers.
Are you interested in the relationships between the use of drums and sermon length, the use of the organ and service length, or the correlation between the number of service attendees and the use of drama? The National Congregations Study allows for users to create their own tables with selected variables.