Let's Talk about the Data
What do worshipers in the Grand Rapids area look like?
I recently posted a survey to take a look at how worshipers feel about worship and how worship makes them feel. I had 44 people from Substack and Facebook take my survey (which is still open, even though the giveaway is not!) and cannot compare that to how many people saw the survey but did not take it. The demographics and break down might say more about who I know then it allows to make an universalizing statement, but that is okay.
Denomination:
As a member of an Anglican (ACNA) church, it makes sense that there is an over-representation of Anglicans, but I think that there is a fair amount of representation of the main denominations in Grand Rapids. (You can see more of a breakdown of the religious groups in the Kent County area here.)
The Worship Leaders that resonded had the following as their denominational breakdown:
The current data is over represented by the Anglicans while Catholics, United Methodists, and Non-Denominational are under-represented. The Baptists and Reformed worshipers make up a large part of the data, but we have to remember that there are approximately 45 Baptist and 75 Reformed churches in the Grand Rapids area.
Attendance:
The 37 out of 44 (84%) of the respondents attending church at least 2-3 weeks a month, if not more. I’m happy about that, as it means that our responses will be from people who are committed to their church\The Church. The two yearly are also interesting, as hopefully they will provide some counter-points and a very different position then everyone else.
Summary:
The majority of (according to my data) worship leaders in the Grand Rapids area are Reformed Male between 25-40 years old. That is not the case for the average worshiper. The average worshiper is between 35-45 and Baptist or Reformed. I guess the area is pretty homogenous. And that’s okay, because the responses will not be. Tune in the next few weeks as I start to lay out my findings.