September 24, 2002
"In the Last Six Months, Someone in My Congregation Has Talked to Me About the Progress of My Spiritual Growth."
by Albert L. Winseman, D. Min.
Religion and Social Trends Editor
As Global Practice Leader for Faith Communities, Dr. Winseman leads Gallup's research and consulting services that assist faith communities in helping their members become more engaged. He is a co-author of the new book, Living Your Strengths, written to help members discover and use their talents and strengths in their congregations. Before joining The Gallup Organization, he was a pastor in the United Methodist Church for 15 years.
This is the 11th in a series of columns exploring the 12
survey items that best measure congregational engagement.
The item, "In the last six months, someone in my congregation
has talked to me about the progress of my spiritual growth"
measures one of the most critical areas of managing a congregation:
accountability. People are not being held accountable for their
spiritual growth -- Gallup research* indicates that only 32% of
members strongly agree that in the last six months someone in their
congregation has talked to them about the progress of their
spiritual growth. In fact, none of the other 12 items received a
lower percentage of "strongly agree" responses than this one. To
put it another way, nearly seven out of 10 members of faith
communities are not getting the feedback they need about their
spiritual growth.
Just as members need to know the expectations of membership in a
faith community (see Related Items), they also need to know how
they are progressing in meeting those expectations -- particularly
in the area of spiritual growth.
Congregations are often woefully inadequate when it comes to
providing feedback to members about their progress. In many cases,
new members attend a class at which the "meaning of membership" is
discussed, but expectations are seldom clarified. After members
complete the class, the only expectations that many congregations
even hint at are attendance and financial giving. Members have no
way to check their progress regarding spiritual growth because
those kinds of expectations have never been clarified. So they go
without such criteria, or make up their own -- which may or may not
be in line with anybody else's. The result: nobody is on the same
page, so it is no wonder that many congregations have a hard time
defining their mission.
Key Points for Spiritual Leaders
- Are your expectations clear? Clear expectations lay the
foundation for everything your faith community is called to do and
be, and they are also critical to accountability. How can members
be held accountable to vague and assumed expectations? Without
clear expectations, members will drift and possibly even leave the
congregation.
- How much feedback are your members getting? All members
need feedback to renew their sense of purpose and let them know how
far they have come in their spiritual journey. As the spiritual
leader of your congregation, it is your job to help them see the
signs of progress. With larger congregations, it may not be
possible to personally give feedback to every member. But you can
be influential in insisting that the systems and processes are in
place so that all members receive regular feedback from someone.
Both lay and staff leaders need to be able to give feedback on the
progress of those they lead.
- How can you show your people how far they have come?
There are many techniques for giving feedback. Your leaders will
have to find the style that fits them best. However, you can model
a feedback process with your staff and key lay leaders,
demonstrating a system that they can use with members. Here are a
few simple methods that everyone can use:
- Set up regular meetings to discuss progress. Impromptu
feedback is certainly valuable, but the process has more power if
it is structured. Ask members how often they would like to meet
(once a month, once a quarter, etc.) and then work out a structure
that can be followed at each session.
- Record each person's success. Every time you or one of
your leaders sees someone doing something particularly
praiseworthy, write them a congratulatory note. Obviously,
congratulating members verbally is also a good thing to do, but
taking time to record your observation in writing carries even more
weight.
- Ask your people to track their own learning. The most
powerful thing you can do is to give members a way to record their
progress in their spiritual journeys. A good way to begin is by
defining what you mean by spiritual growth (see Related Items), so
members can own the process and check their progress as they
grow.
The SE25 are protected by copyright of The Gallup Organization,
Princeton, NJ, 2001.
*Results are based on telephone interviews with 729 adult
members of a church, synagogue, or other religious faith community,
aged 18 and older, conducted October through November 2001. For
results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that
the margin of sampling error is ±3.6%.
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