In the last couple of weeks of November, we did a demographic survey of our Network members. We e-mailed our members, inviting them to take the online survey sometime over a period of two weeks. We had a good response to the invitation. Our response rate was 52%.
There are two reasons we did the study:
- We are getting ready to launch a new Network strategic plan in the next couple of months (more on this later, I promise!) and the data from this survey will help us as we work on the plan.
- One of our hopes is to develop new organizational partnerships. This information will help us “tell the story” of the Network to these potential partners.
We learned quite a bit. Here’s a brief run-down.
Age:
We are a more mature organization than I expected. Our age breakdown is:
| 19-24 | 6% |
| 25-30 | 20% |
| 31-40 | 24% |
| 41-50 | 17% |
| 50-65 | 31% |
| 65+ | 2% |
Interestingly, if you lump these age groups into three categories, 19-30 (26%), 31-50 (41%) and 51+ (33%) the age breakdowns are fairly even, if skewed slightly older. This tells me two things: 1) We are an older, and more experienced group than I expected, and 2) The smallest of these 3 categories is our youngest group. This is clearly a place then where we need to increase our outreach and communication efforts.
Gender:
| Female | 63% |
| Male | 37% |
Ministry Role:
“I Serve As A:”
| Volunterer | 10% |
| Professional – Part Time | 22% |
| Professional – Full Time | 68% |
Education Level:
| High School Graduate | 12% |
| College Graduate | 42% |
| Seminary – MA | 11% |
| Seminary – Mdiv | 10% |
| Master’s Degree (other than seminary) | 22% |
| Ph.D | 3% |
ELCA Roster Status:
| Non-Rostered | 68% |
| Pastor | 21% |
| AIM | 11% |
| Diaconal Minister | .5% |
| Deaconess | 0 |
Ethnicity & Multi-Culturalism:
| Caucasion | 94% |
| African American/Black | 3% |
| Multi Ethnic/Multi Racial | 1% |
| Latino/a | 1% |
| Arab and Middle Eastern | .5% |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | .5% |
| American Indian/Alaskan Native | 0% |
Ministry Setting:
| Congregation | 79% |
| Synod Staff | 9% |
| Educational Institution | 5% |
| Non-Congregational Youth Min | 3% |
| Resource Provider | 2% |
| ELCA Offices | 1% |
| Outdoor Ministry | 1% |
Areas of Responsibility:
We asked the question “what are your areas of ministry responsibility?” and asked people to “check all that apply. The percentage listed is the percentage of the total respondents (321) that replied that this was one of their responsibilities. What we heard back was:
| Youth Ministry | 80% |
| Family Ministry | 58% |
| Children’s Ministry | 52% |
| Young Adult Ministry | 45% |
| Worship Leadership | 29% |
| Adult Education | 27% |
Network Resources Used in the Last Three Years:
| The Extravaganza | 67% |
| E-News | 65% |
| Connect Journal | 47% |
| Salary Survey | 45% |
| 3rdTuesday Conversations | 41% |
| MartinsList | 36% |
| Practice Discipleship Project | 35% |
| Video Archive of Speakers | 32% |
| Placement Page | 32% |
| Membership Discounts | 17% |
| List of Cong willing to host groups | 12% |
| ThinkMinistry.org | 8% |
There is a lot of information to process and analyze. What does it teach us? Well, we’re not sure yet. But we’re taking a look at it. Our sense of who we are will help to shape what we think God is calling the Network to be. The draft of our strategic plan will be released for public comment in the next week or two.
In the meantime, if you have comments or thoughts, we’d love to hear them. Please comment here in this blog.
Advent Blessings!
Todd
Network is a Verb 