Last month, our Discipleship Team created a survey that we sent out to the entire church. Over 500 of you gave us your input! The feedback you contributed is invaluable as we move into planning our next program year.

A special thank you to fellow Browncrofter and University of Rochester professor Jim Prinzi, who helped us compile and assess the data. It was a blessing to have him engaged in the process.

Here are a few things that stood out to me as I looked at the results:

First, the vast majority of you consider Sunday morning worship services to be helpful to your spiritual growth.

Additionally, for those of you involved in small groups, you see them as spaces that are helping you discover what it means to follow Jesus more fully.

Many of you also highly rate the importance of serving in your spiritual journey.

I am extremely grateful that these things are true of the people in our church. Our team has begun reflecting on these trends as well as the other data we collected. We are praying together for God’s leading as we continue to pursue His will for our church. Weekly events were the lowest rated response on the survey, but we see great opportunity in monthly events as well as mentorship. We are excited to see how God speaks to us as we enter this season of discernment.

While studying the survey results, Jim made a surprising observation about the unity in responses across all age groups and demographics. Ratings and answers were similar regardless of the background of the respondents. This is a very rare and interesting discovery, and one that we wouldn’t have made without Jim’s help in analyzing the data!

Thank you to those of you who gave additional thoughts and comments. I and several other of our ministry leaders read through each one and found them helpful in understanding our collective spiritual journey as a church.

Finally, please know that our Discipleship Team is using this season to ask the Lord for guidance in the year ahead. We might not know all the details yet, but the decisions we make will be covered in prayer. We will also use your opinions in the discernment process. Who knows — there might even be more surveys to come!

Thanks again. I’m grateful to be serving in a church with such wonderful people.

John Iamaio