Over the summer, the Interim Steering Committee put up several black and white signs in the Sanctuary. They had quotes taken from the History Day event we held back in May. They spun in the slow summer breeze, revealing some of the different ways people define our congregation.
We did it as part of the larger process of defining ourselves as a congregation as we search for a new pastor. We also did a much more formal survey of your thoughts about the church, the results of which will soon be posted in the Sanctuary. We decided to put up our signs as a way to get members to continue their pondering about our church. We asked for your thoughts about those spinning statements and 40 of you responded. Here are some of the results of the "homespun" survey.
The percentages show how many agreed with the following statements:
| 98% | We appreciate faithful preaching linked to the real world. |
| 90% | Children are really important here |
| 88% | We attract people because of our stance on social justice. |
| 85% | As a congregation, we like it when people participate. |
| 83% | TPPC is a church for all people. |
| 80% | We are a friendly congregation (note: 10% felt we were unfriendly) |
| 75% | We come with different gifts but the same Spirit. We share spiritual values in common and are aiming in the same direction, even if we disagree about some issues. |
| 68% | We appreciate diversity in our congregation but are concerned it is decreasing. |
| 65% | We could invite people to church more. |
| 63% | TPPC does not feel clique-ish (note 28% DO think it feels cliqueish) |
| 58% | Some leaders in the church take on a lot of responsibility and have difficulty involving others |
| 55% | Our youth program needs more stability. |
| 55% | A sense of responsibility rests with too few people. |
| 53% | There is unity in our common goals if we could find ways to work together better. |
| 51% | We don't always speak with one voice. Some people leave if they feel that their views are not respected. |
| 50% | When people have strong opinions, it's hard to express opposing views. |
While there was a lot of consensus on some issues, the survey also revealed areas where we see things very differently. For example, there is conflict about conflict. Forty-three percent agree that we need to learn how to deal better with conflict and 25% disagree. A fair number (28%) of people agree that it's hard to change the way things are done here, but 43% disagree.
Finally, an interesting result was that the statements that generated the most responses also tended to be the statements where there was the highest consensus.
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