News

Survey Results

August 18, 2009

Preliminary Report on Spiritual Health Survey 2008

Riverbend Community Church

 

 

Riverbend received 188 responses from the written survey conducted in October of this year. Approximately 66% of respondents identified themselves as members and 31% identified themselves are regular attendees All surveys were anonymous with the exception of one survey in which the respondent chose to write their name on the comment section.  The written surveys were destroyed once all data analysis was completed.

 

Demographics of respondents:

 

Residence:

 

Marital Status:

·               13% single; 75% married; 1.6% single parent; 2.1% divorced, one widowed person

 

Age :

·           56% in the 40 - 50 year old age range

·        13%  30 to 39

·         9%   18 to 24

·        12%  25 to 29

 

Number of years in attendance at Riverbend:

·        28% Less than 2 years

·        31% 2 to 5 years

·        20% 5 to 10 years

·        20% 10 to 25 years

 

Biblical Doctrine:

The results of the survey indicated statistically overwhelming agreement on Christian Doctrine and Bible Truth statements with 87% agreement and 13% disagreement.

 

 

 

 

Personal Godliness and Progress in Sanctification:

·     77% of respondents pray daily or almost daily in individual prayer and less than 5% pray less than weekly

·     57% pray daily to 4 times a week with a group of people

·      31% pray 1 to 3 times a month with a group of people

 

Reading the Bible:

·      42% read the Bible daily or almost daily

·      23% read the Bible 2 to 4 times a week

·      15% read the Bible one time a week

 

Living the Christian Life:

 

Many respondents did not answer one or more statements in this section.  Of those that responded the following is a sample of responses:

·      98% Agree or Strongly agree with the statement: "I do good works out of joy and compassion rather than to earn merit or forgiveness."

·      55% Agree of Strongly agree with the statement: "I am happy and contented with my marriage / singleness.   10% disagreed with this statement.

·      45% Disagree with the statement "I have a bad temper that is sometimes out of control.

·      It is remarkable to note that the following statements were largely ignored by respondents:  Of the respondents who did answer , 16% of the respondents marked strongly agree/agree to the statement "I sometimes use pornography" and 7% marked agree/strongly agree to the statement: "I have had sexual relations outside the bonds of marriage sometime since first attending RCC.

·      A significant number of respondents rated themselves as underdeveloped or not well developed in the following statements: "Building good friendships with unbelievers," "worshipping God in family and/or household devotions," and "sharing my faith with others."

Respondents were ask to rate the top three aspects of their spiritual lives that they would like to improve. Of the 12 questions, the following four statements were rated most commonly:

"Growing in personal holiness"

"Increasing my Bible knowledge"

"Improving my prayer life"

"Increasing my committment to Christ"

 

Church Body Life and Christian Love

 

Service attended:

·     60% attend the 9 am Sunday morning church service

·     37% attend the 11am service

·     5% attend both services

 

When ask about church attendence:

·     59% attend more than 45 Sunday services a year

·     28% attend 36 to 45 Sunday services a year

 

When ask to to complete the statement, "After a typical worship service, I leave :" 2/3 of respondents answered "mostly" to the following statements:

·     "Experiencing God's presence as I worship"

·     "Encouraged by the gospel"

·     "Refreshed by Christian fellowship"

 

Shepherding

 

·     22% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement: "I have a good support group in the church who know me well enough to help me when I am in need."

·     10% Agree or Strongly Agree with the statement, “I am struggling with a secret sin that I have not shared with anyone who can help me spiritually.”

·     7% Agree or Strongly Agree with the statement, “My experience of being abused (sexual or other forms) hinders my relationship with God and other Believers.”

 

 

Stewardship

·    60% Agree or Strongly Agree with the statement, “I am giving sacrificially to the church and other Christian work” as compared with 12% of respondents who marked Disagree of Strongly Disagree.

·    68% Agree or Strongly Agree with the statement, “I am a good steward of the money God has entrusted to me” as compared to 14% who marked Disagree or Strongly Disagree.

 

 

 

 

·    Responses to the question, “How much of your gross(total) income do your give to Riverbend Community Church:” 

o  15% stated that they give greater than 10%.   

o  30% give right at 10%

o  29% give between 5% and 9%

o  10% give less than 5%

o  11% do not give regularly

 

Discipleship

 

Responses to the statement, “Generally speaking Riverbend Community Church does a good job. . .”

·     84% Agree of Strongly Agree that RCC does a good job increasing my focus on faith and enabling me to relate to God.

·     79% Agree or Strongly Agree that RCC helps train parent to apply Christian principles to raising children.

·     77% agree or strongly agree that RCC helps them foster a healthy marriage.

·     70% Agree or Strongly Agree that RCC does a good job mobilizing the church body for practical deeds of mercy.

·     70% believe that RCC provides strong Biblical teaching.

·     69% Agree or Strongly Agree that RCC is good at encouraging my faithful stewardship including financial giving to church and ministry endeavors.

·     68% believe that RCC does a good job teaching me to do personal evangelism

·     68% Agree or Strongly Agree that RCC provides sufficient pastoral care for each member of the church.

·     66% Agree or Strongly Agree that RCC does a good job teaching the church’s children to know and serve the Lord.

·     63% agree or strongly agree that RCC does a good job training me to serve Christ within my vocation or education

·     60% Agree or Strongly Agree that RCC promotes true fellowship among the community of believers.

·     59% believe that RCC does a good job sensing God’s presence

·     57% Agree of Strongly Agree that RCC does a good job introducing seekers to Jesus Christ.

·     53% Agree or Strongly Agree that RCC does a good job making visitors feel welcome.

·     46% agree or strongly agree that RCC does a good job building me up to be a genuine disciple in the midst of a secular society.

 

Discipleship:

·     When respondents were ask if they had personally been discipled by another person 53% answered Strongly Agree or Agree as compared with 31% who answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree.

·     45% of respondents Agreed or Strongly Agreed with the statement that they had been involved with discipling another person as compared with 37% who answered with Disagree or Strongly Disagree

·     30% answered with Agree or Strongly Agree when ask if they were currently discipling another person compared with 49% who answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree.

 

 

Many thanks to all who participated in the survey.  Let’s pray and thank God for the spiritual growth in our church and let’s also pray that God would lead us to greater maturity in Jesus Christ and strengthen areas we are weak in.