Who's In Your Pew?

Take a look at your pew (or chair, whatever the case may be). Are you more concerned about who's not in your pew? Or are you concerned about who is in your pew? It probably depends on what stage your church is currently in. Every church goes through its S-curve life-stages...and needs to reinvent and innovate to maintain a healthy state. A healthy state = new people coming to Christ and the regular people being discipled and growing).

Why be concerned about who is in your pew? For three important reasons. First, God has entrusted these relationships to us. We need each person to reach another person who may not know Christ. How will I know how to disciple and cause others to reach Christ if I don't know who they are to begin with? Second, knowing who's in your pew also helps us evaluate who really is coming. Third, it helps us figure out how to make connections on a Sunday morning to create connecting opportunities for people to worship.

Recently at Grace Church (Lititz, PA), we surveyed our entire Sunday morning worship service to figure out who's in our pew (or chairs in our case). Out of a little more than 1,000 people in the auditorium, we gathered 700+ anonymous surveys. That's a 70% return...very nice. Here's the survey, so you could see the questions. Then below are the responses. There are very interesting correlations from the information. In the next blog, I'll share some of the insights the staff had regarding the survey. Also, a big thank you to Matt McElravy for tallying the results for us. Matt is currently on staff as Worship Intern.

TIP - Click on the images below to view them in a larger format.

THE SURVEY ITSELF

THE SURVEY DATA TALLIED

DATE OF SURVEY 14-May-06

721 Total Number of Surveys Collected

GENDER

410 56.9% Female
309 42.9% Male
3 0.4% Gender No Response

AGE
35 4.9% Age: 12 & under
64 8.9% Age: 13-18
30 4.2% Age: 19-23
52 7.2% Age: 24-29
107 14.8% Age: 30s
164 22.7% Age: 40s
145 20.1% Age: 50s
66 9.2% Age: 60s
54 7.5% Age: 70+
4 0.6% Age No Response

TENURE
29 4.0% Visiting
118 16.4% Less than one year
156 21.6% 1-2 years
61 8.5% 3-5 years
81 11.2% 6-10 years
273 37.9% 10 or more years
3 0.4% Driving No Response

DRIVE DISTANCE
427 59.2% 1-5 miles
155 21.5% 6-10 miles
65 9.0% 11-15 miles
35 4.9% 16-20 miles
18 2.5% Over 25 miles
15 2.1% 21-25 miles
6 0.8% Driving No Response

FIRST TOUCH
322 44.7% Someone invited me
54 7.5% Lititz Christian School
14 1.9% Promotional material
13 1.8% MorningStar
13 1.8% Special service or event
8 1.1% Church website
284 39.4% Other reason came

EVENT SOMEONE INVITED ME TO
127 17.6% Worship service (AM, PM, Easter, Patriotic)
19 2.6% Crosswalk
4 0.6% VBS
4 0.6% New pastor
4 0.6% Christmas
2 0.3% Youth group
2 0.3% Mother's Day service
2 0.3% Marriage class

TIP - Click on the images below to view them in a larger format.

Grace Church Performs at Barnstormers Minor League Baseball Game

Last Friday, a men's quintet from Grace Church (Lititz, PA) called "One Voice" performed "The Star Spangled Banner" (National Anthem) at the Barnstormers baseball game in Lancaster, PA. If you'd like to hear their performance, crude recording on my Treo smartphone, then click here for streaming audio or right-click here and "save as" to download the audio to your computer. Or if you want to get real fancy...try this flash audio player by clicking here.

It was a great family time for Lisa, Joshua, and me. We even got to have a picture taken with Cylo...the team mascot. Joshua wasn't too freaked out by him...but I was. His fur smelled musty. Anyway. We heard later that there were over 100 people who went to hear One Voice perform.

The last time we had this much "buzz" at Grace was around the time of the Christmas walk-thru this past year. Who would have thought that five guys could generate so much under-the-table talk. What thrilled me the most was the potential converstations that could have taken place at the game, simply because these guys sang. Image all the people (insert John Lennon song here) who sat next to the 100+ Grace members. Image the talk about why they were there. Image the talk afterward..."Hey, I've heard of that church before..."

God, help us to use every opportunity to promote Your name. On the surface, it was a simple performance for a secular event...but we ask that You would use this opportunity to begin conversations about Grace that ultimately lead people back to You. Thank You for the opportunities you bring us.