Not Exactly Average

The results to a survey of the Episcopal Church are now online. King of Peace was one of the 4,102 churches to fill out the survey. Sometimes this means we are in the heart of the big numbers, such as being in the 98% of Episcopal Churches whose worship regularly or always is a communion service, we also are among the 74% to have good to excellent facilities, and we are in the 74% of Episcopalians worshipping in a church that seats 101 to 250 persons, and among the 72% to have only one clergy person on staff.

But there are some ways in which we stand out from the norm including being founded since 1990 (3.3%) and among the churches whose worship often or always includes visual projection equipment (3%) and drums or other percussion (6%).

Perhaps most important, we can count ourselves among the 40% of Episcopal Churches to have worship "filled with a sense of God's presence" and the 39% that are "welcoming to newcomers."

In one interesting insight, the survey reports that

Growing congregations were more likely to strongly agree that they have a clear mission and purpose, are spiritually vital and alive, change to meet new challenges and are a fun place to be.

Reponses to: “is like a close knit family,” “celebrates its Episcopal heritage,” and “desires growth in attendance and membership” were unrelated to growth.

Congregations that say they are like a “close knit family” tend to be smaller churches and are more likely to be located in rural areas and smaller towns.

We are definitely among the churches reporting growth and so apparently, the survey finds that King of Peace is "spiritually vital and alive" and "a fun place to be."
It's hard to argue with those survey results. Right? :-)

You can check out the full survey results online.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal Church