Earlier this year we launched what we hope will become our annual church communication survey. We plan to share the results over the coming year, highlighting different areas and topics as we interpret and share the results. We conducted the survey online using Survey Monkey, launching it in mid-March and running through the end of April. While it’s not a scientific survey, it does give us helpful insights into the world of church communication.
We’ll start by sharing some of the preliminary results about who we are as communicators and churches.
Glimpse at Church Communicators
First and foremost we can take a look at who took our survey. We had 766 total responses, though some of the questions had fewer responses as individuals could choose to skip some questions. A quick look at our church communicators:
- Gender-wise we’re pretty even: 51% female, 49% male.
- Well-educated: 84% have completed bachelor’s degrees or more. 22% completed graduate school.
- Experienced: 22% have more than 10 years of experience. Though a big chunk, 11%, are just getting started. Here’s the breakdown:
- Full time & Volunteer: While most church communicators are full time (58%), there is a sizable volunteer (21%) and part-time contingent (17% combined). Here’s the fancy graph:
- Design-savvy: We asked what other roles these communicators have had in their careers and designer topped the list. Low on the list? Copywriter and church pastor. Here’s the breakdown:
Glimpse at Churches
Next let’s take a look at the churches represented by this survey.
- Denomination: While several denominations had large minorities, including Baptist (15%), Methodist (12%) and Episcopal (11%), non-denominational took the top spot (27%).
- Multi-site: 23% of churches in the survey were multi-site congregations.
- Size: Nearly 40% of the churches represented had an average weekend attendance over 1,000. The largest concentrations were in the 200 to 1,000 range. Here’s the breakdown:
- Varied roles: Another fun question looked at what teams or roles existed at a church. Video took the lead, even beating out the more traditional IT department. Here’s how it broke down:
Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey. Stay tuned for more results throughout the year.
Johanna Price
July 9, 2013
Interesting! I love surveys and graphs.
If we’re split pretty close to 50/50 men and women, why do we mostly hear from men about church communications in the blogosphere/Twitterdom/conference circuit? (I am somewhat pointing the finger at myself here, but honestly. Where are the women?)
Rachelskirts
July 23, 2013
As some of the others have responded, busyness is a huge factor for me. With my responsibilities at the office always growing and changing, I feel like I only ever have time to be an observer and not a contributor in this community. However, I have recently had a change in my personal schedule, freeing up hours every week. One of the things I would love to do in that time is start a blog where I can share my perspective on church communication and print/web design stuff. I started working at my church six years ago on my 22nd birthday, and oh, the many things I have learned. :) And there are so many MORE things that I want to learn and talk about with this awesome community, from the newbies to the veterans.
(If anyone knows of other female bloggers/tweeters writing about church communications, I’d love some links!)
Noreen
July 15, 2013
Where are the women? TOO STINKIN’ BUSY to tweet/speak at conferences/blog/do self-promotion. At least that’s true for me. Outside my more-than-full-time job in church comm, every second of my spare time is consumed with my home life: cooking, cleaning, wife-ing, mom-ing. I have so much to do that I actually feel guilty for taking 5 min to read this post and respond to it!
Lisa
July 15, 2013
I agree with Noreen.
My job included:
PPT for sermon
Movies for sermon= filming, editing, producing
Video/lighting/ sound team
Supervising IT Team
Graphic design/Ad copy
All poster graphic etc.
Creative thoughts to go with sermon/ set design/ etc.
Signage outside of church and inside
Transitioning off…burnt up…but by the grace of God, not burnt out