Reveal Report - Part Two

Of the 355 from Grace Church who participated in the Reveal Survey (see part one for an explanation) 96% of them attend our Sunday worship services 3-4 times a month. Only 36% attend a small group (i.e. Adult Bible Fellowship Class) at least once a month. 56% of them serve somewhere in our church ministry at least once a month. But only 19% are involved in serving those in need who are outside of our church. One of the key take away points we discovered is that our people want more opportunity to serve hurting people outside of Grace Church. This was the motivating factor for our adding the “STUFF THE SUNROOM” project to our October plans.

The survey identified seven critical areas that people needed from the church for spiritual growth. Here they are along with the percentage of people who took the survey who are satisfied with how Grace Church is doing in each of these areas:

Challenges me to grow and take next steps (81% were satisfied)
Helps me understand the Bible in depth (90% were satisfied)
Provides compelling worship services (81% were satisfied)
Helps me feel like I belong (50% were satisfied)
Helps me develop a personal relationship with Christ (78% were satisfied)
Helps me find relationships that encourage accountability (31% were satisfied)
Provides opportunities to serve those in need (52% were satisfied)

As you can see from the two highlighted areas above, this survey confirmed our need and direction in hiring a Pastor of Connections and becoming a church of small groups.

The survey did reveal that only 42% of those from Grace Church who participated could honestly say that they love God more than anything else. 97% of those who participated believed in the Trinity and 87% believed in salvation by Grace. Only 66% firmly believed in the authority of the Bible so expect to see more specific teaching in the next year on the fact that the Bible is the inspired word of God and must be the final authority for our lives.

One of the areas of the survey that really stuck out was that only 12% of those who took the survey could say that they have a tremendous love for people they do not know. Now a lot of that is in how you define the word “tremendous.” So another “take away” point for me was that we need to do a much better job of hitting on the fact that the greatest commandment is to love God and then to love others.

Another “take away” point was in seeing that only 27% of those from Grace who participated in the survey study their Bible daily and only 36% pray daily. We have got to get those numbers up. If you think that all you need to grow spiritually is to attend church you are so very, very wrong. The Christian life is difficult. It is like swimming up stream against a very strong current and all you have are two strokes…PRAYER and BIBLE STUDY! Take either or both of those strokes away and you will not make any progress.