St. Andrew's Worship Survey Report

November 28, 2007

To: The Members And Friends of St. Andrew’s
From: Bruce Davis

Earlier this year, the St. Andrew’s church family was invited to participate in a Worship Survey. The survey period began in late September and ended in mid-October. Participants were invited to respond either by paper surveys distributed on Sunday mornings or on-line.

A total of 461 surveys were completed. This is a very strong response, indicating great interest. We heartily thank each of you who took the time to participate.
Alan Brugler served as our Tabulator-In-Chief. The results were reported to the Charge Conference on November 13. A week later, November 20, the Administrative Council met with the Staff to review the surveys and make decisions.

Attached to this letter, you’ll find a statistical addendum. Two things really jumped out at us:

• A lack of enthusiasm for the current schedule (see #8 in addendum).

• Strong interest in a Saturday evening worship option (#5 in addendum).


By the unanimous vote of the Council, guided by your input, effective the last weekend in March (the weekend after Easter), St. Andrew’s will move to a worship schedule that looks like this:

5:00 SATURDAY EVENING
· Atmosphere: Very informal, come-as-you are.

• Music: Contemporary/Gospel.

• Sermon: Same as Sunday morning.

• Children/Youth: All but the youngest (Nursery through Pre-Kindergarten) children will participate in the first half of the service. We will then invite the children forward for a “Children’s Sermon” and dismiss them to BIBLE ZONE—the same curriculum used in Sunday School.

• Youth: Will be invited to participate in worship.

• Location: Sanctuary, unless there’s a wedding conflict, in which case we’ll worship in the Family Life Center.


8:30 & 10:00 SUNDAY MORNING

• Atmosphere: Radical Hospitality

• Music: Blended (See # 6 & 7 in statistical addendum)

• Children: Both services will have BIBLE ZONE Sunday School for all children, as well as nursery.

• Youth: 10:00 will be our primary youth hour.


Staff will be monitoring this very closely and make additions/adjustments as needed. Again, we thank all of you who have responded to the survey, and ask for your prayers and patience in the weeks and months to come.

STATISTICAL ADDENDUM TO THE BRUCE DAVIS LETTER OF NOVEMBER 26, 2007

1) Asked what service our respondents attended:

• 9% said they regularly attend the 8:00 service.

• 57% were 9:15 regulars.

• 23% checked 10:45.

• 10% said their service attendance varies.


2) The age breakdown went like this:

• Age 20 & under: 2%

• 21-30: 9%

• 31-40: 22%

• 41-50: 33%

• 51-60: 21%

• 61-70: 8%

• Age 70 & over: 5%.

As Alan B. noted, this is almost a perfect Bell Curve.

3) We asked how long the respondents had been attending St. Andrew’s:

• 14% said they’d been worshiping here a year or less.

• 34% fell into 2-5 year category.

• 30% were 5-10 years.

• 21% have been with us over ten years.


4) How frequently do you attend?

• 67% said Most Sundays

• 22% said Less Than Half

• 8% marked Half

• 2% coming in at Rarely.


5) One of the key reasons for offering this survey was to gauge interest in a Saturday evening worship option. Asked How Often Would You Attend on Saturday?:

• 11% marked Regular

• 7% said Regular With the Exception of Football Season

• 62% said they would attend on Saturday when they have a Sunday morning conflict.

• 18% marked Never.


100 respondents said they would make a six-month commitment as Saturday evening “Pioneers” to help us get the service off the ground.


6) We explained that St. Andrew’s has been moving in the direction of more “blended” services, fusing the praise sounds we do so well at 9:15 & 10:45 with more traditional hymnody, sometimes set to a gospel beat. We asked people to give us their position on blending. Here are those numbers:

• 1 = 7% (Strongly opposed)

• 2 = 6%;

• 3 = 21%

• 4 = 29%

• 5 = 36%. (Strongly Enthusiastic)

Alan B. did a breakdown showing that our 8:00 regulars are supportive of blending, which was very interesting.

7) Asked to choose a preference from Blended, Praise and Hymns:

• 62% chose Blended

• 30% chose Praise

• 7% chose Hymns.


8) We attempted to measure enthusiasm for various mix-and-match worship times.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the entire survey was the lack of enthusiasm for the current schedule. Asked if we should just keep doing what we’re doing:

• 1 = 26% (Strongly Opposed)

• 2 = 22%

• 3 = 27%

• 4 = 7%,

• 5 = 9%. (Strongly Enthusiastic)

When only 16% of respondents are on the enthusiastic side of the status quo, it sounds like a mandate for change.

Perhaps we should just go to two Sunday services without a Saturday option? Respondents weren’t excited about that.

• 1 = 21% (Strongly Opposed)

• 2 = 18%

• 3 =31%

• 4 = 14%

• 5 = 8%. (Strongly Enthusiastic)


So, we asked: If we go to a Saturday evening service with two services on Sunday morning, what would be the starting times? From the beginning of the discussion, we’ve looked at 5:00 as the Saturday start time. We gave respondents two options regarding Sunday morning: A) 8:30 & 10:00 and B) 9:00 & 10:30. The people’s choice is B, but after a lot of soul searching, the Administrative Council has chosen to go with A: 8:30 & 10:00. Why? Let me tell you….

THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT: There is a paradox at St. Andrew’s. By a substantial margin, our largest attended service is 9:15, but the majority of our first-time visitors show up at 10:45. Church growth theory holds that the sanctuary needs to be at a minimum of 40% capacity in order to generate the kind of excitement that will motivate a first-time visitor to come back. Presently, in our 900 seat sanctuary, the 10:45 service is doing well to hit 25% capacity. A 9:00/10:30 start would likely move our current 9:15 & 10:45 constituencies up fifteen minutes, with the added effect of largely disenfranchising our 8:00 people. This jumped out at us: a strong percentage of people indicating interest in Saturday evening are currently worshiping at 10:45. A 9:00/10:30 start might well result in an even smaller number of people worshiping in our service that ministers to the most walk-ins—something we definitely DON’T want.

There is much to be gained, we think, in the 8:30 & 10:00 start times. Our mission is, after all, Sharing The Gospel of Jesus Christ. If we’re serious about Sharing The Gospel with visitors, 5:00 Saturday and 8:30/10:00 Sunday seems the way to go.

Finally, there’s going to be a lot of learning involved here. However well organized we may be by March 29 & 30, adjustments will certainly have to be made. We’ll be VERY interested in your constructive feedback.