Tag: survey

Expectant father quiz

Just add milk
Just add milk | Photo by Brenda Welcome

Laurie’s been sharing a great Q&A over on her blog through most of the pregnancy… thought I should share my answers as well (although the questions don’t all fit an expectant dad as well as they do an expectant mom).

How Far Along: Less than 80 hours to go

Total Weight Gained/Loss: 10-15 pounds… although I’ve started watching what I’m eating again and I’ve lost 7 or 8 pounds in the last few weeks… so a net gain of 4-7 as of today.

Sleep: No real changes for me.

Best Moment of the Week: seeing Laurie get excited as we countdown the days and hours till the boys arrive.

Movement: Laurie says they’re still moving fairly regularly but not as much as before. It’s amazing to feel them move and squirm from time to time — especially when you can feel something recognizable like a foot, hand or a knee.

Food Craving: Chinese food and Mexican food.

Labor Signs: We haven’t worked out our signals yet… but I’m keeping my phone near me at all times just in case. Luckily unless something changes drastically in the next 70 hours or so we won’t be making any rush trips in the middle of the night to the hospital.

Belly Button: Mine hasn’t changed in the last 31 years or so that I can tell.

Stretch Marks: Those appeared in college when I took on my “freshman 50.”

Wedding rings: It’s scuffed up and scratched up but still fits like it did the day we bought it.

What I miss: Walks at night with Laurie and her being able to go where she wants with me.

What I’m looking forward to: Getting to meet my baby boys in less than 4 days!

Other NEW news this week: My co-workers threw me a surprise baby shower this past week. It was very sweet to have everyone there and their presence (and gifts of diapers and wipes) were so greatly appreciated!

Church-goers support torture

torture

A new CNN article today reports that the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Can someone please tell me why?

Is there something I’m missing along the way?

Photo by benab

What’s behind these community groups?

I’ve asked everyone in our community groups at encounter to take a couple minutes and either fill out an online survey or a printed version of the survey regarding their experiences in their encounter community group.

I’ve received some of the community group surveys back already – (they were sent out roughly a week ago)

A few interesting things so far… (from the current respondents).

  • 87% are married
  • 75% have children
  • 75% learned about their group from a Sunday morning announcement
  • 87% attend their group regularly (3-4 times a month)
  • 100% attend encounter – 100% attend frequently
  • 75% have attended encounter for more than a year
  • 87% have been a Christ follower for at least 3 years
  • 62% rarely or never attended church growing up
  • 100% are involved in other encounter ministries
  • 100% would recommend their group
  • 67% have invited at least 1 person to their group
  • 100% would rank the quality of their group 3 or higher on a 1-5 scale
  • 50% would rank the quality of their group a 5

I have a feeling these results have come primarily from one or two groups, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the results turn out and if there’s much variation. I’d also be interested to see how other churches score.

Church surveys

A couple churches have shared surveys they’ve given their congregations over the last couple months.
National Community Church and Granger Community Church have both shared their surveys online.
Also, Willowcreek Community Church in Chicago recently announced the findings of one of their recent surveys and admitted that they’ve been wrong in their way of thinking and doing ministry.
That’s a bit jaw dropping but can you imagine what might have happened if they never surveyed their congregation and kept doing “business as usual.”
I’m working on a survey for the community groups in our church and wondering if any other churches out there have surveyed their congregations or specific groups and ministries within their church. What have you found? What did you change? Where did it lead you?