Pastors, Laity Differ on Level of Church Involvement in Key Issues
by Allie Martin
August 25, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A new pair of studies shows how involved pastors and lay people believe their church is in a variety of areas. According to the surveys, there are major differences between those in mainline and those in evangelical churches.The studies were conducted by Ellison Research for Fact and Trends magazine, which is published by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastors and lay persons were asked how involved their church is in issues such as Bible study, missions and evangelism, personal morality, social justice, personal finances, the environment, and politics. Where as a majority of ministers said their churches were very involved in Bible study and personal morality, most lay people surveyed believed their churches were involved in many issues.
Read the details on the Ellison Research studies
Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, says the results show a disparity between the views of lay workers and clergy regarding church involvement.
"In most cases the lay people think the church is significantly more involved than the pastor does," he notes. "Now, given the fact that the pastor has to at least touch almost all areas of the church, what this really suggests is that you're probably better off believing the perspectives of the pastor."
According to Sellers, the surveys found that 84 percent of evangelical churches are very involved in Bible study as opposed to 61 percent of mainline churches. In addition, 71 percent of evangelical churches are involved in personal morality issues, while 40 percent of mainline congregations take on such issues. Sellers says he is not surprised by the findings.
"Mainline churches, according to the ministers anyways, tend to be significantly more involved than evangelical churches in social justice issues such as poverty, racism, homelessness, immigration, as well as in environmental issues," says the researcher. "But the evangelical churches were considerably more likely than the mainline churches to be involved in any type of evangelism or missions, whether that was domestic, local, or overseas."
Overall, says Sellers, clergy indicated their churches are relatively uninvolved in politics or political issues.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
