How true is this to your experience? (Any suggestions about how to measure "orthodox biblical response"?)"On all 9 of the belief statements tested, attenders of large churches were more likely than those engaged in a small or mid-sized congregation to give an orthodox biblical response - e.g., the Bible is totally accurate in all the principles it teaches, Satan is not merely symbolic but exists, Jesus led a sinless life, God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe, etc."
(N=1,334)
| Belief description* | 1-100** | 101-200 | 201-499 | 500-999 | 1000+ |
| Bible is totally accurate in all the principles it teaches | 60% | 63% | 70% | 67% | 75% |
| Have personal responsibility to tell others your beliefs | 41 | 44 | 47 | 53 | 61 |
| Your religious faith is very important in your life | 82 | 83 | 90 | 88 | 90 |
| Satan/devil is a living being not just a symbol of evil | 30 | 29 | 36 | 38 | 51 |
| A good person cannot earn a place in Heaven | 33 | 39 | 47 | 48 | 55 |
| On earth Jesus Christ did not commit sins, like other people | 49 | 50 | 59 | 65 | 74 |
| God is the omnipotent, omniscient creator who rules all | 81 | 81 | 86 | 86 | 90 |
| Born again Christian (see definition below) | 63 | 64 | 69 | 81 | 75 |
| Evangelical Christian (see definition below) | 9 | 11 | 21 | 24 | 25 |
| Number of respondents in this subgroup | 547 | 306 | 247 | 120 | 114 |
* these are descriptions of the actual survey questions, not the wording of the questions actually used in the research.
** Adult attendance on an average weekend
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Scot.
In your post #3 you mentioned about mainline churches being smaller, but there's that big liberal Methodist Church (I think) in KC, and there must be others. No?
Doug
Doug, I was speaking only to the trends. Yes, Adam Hamilton in KC's church is exceptional.
Rick, the volunteering is participation in "the life of the church"--which could mean any number of ministries, inward or outward focused.
This study found that only 6% of megachurch attenders are truly seekers. A far larger % come from other local churches.
I encourage you to follow the link I posted above to the study; it's fascinating reading.
Josh-
Thanks for the link. It is an interesting study, and has some expected results. No doubt.
However, your mentioned the quote:
"As such, involvement at these (and perhaps all) churches may be less about creating an idealized plan to move someone toward commitment and more about providing many ways by which people craft their uique, customized spiritual experience to meet their needs."
I think that painting with too broad a brush. I see two types of megachurches: those primarily focused on meeting needs, and those primarily focused on commitment (growing spiritually, missional-minded, etc...). We need to be careful to not discount those latter churches. I also think we need to keep in mind that many of those same churches are constantly working to better reach and minister to people, thus we see efforts such as the "multi-site" strategy.
Too bad the study did not include a "theological" option (in addition to the "worship, "senior pastor",...) in their "why did you choose to attend this church?" question. It would have helped with this overall topic/post.
I think that ChrisB proved Jeff Moulton's point!
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