What Does REVEAL reveal?

REVEAL’s methodology has recently gotten some attention in the Blogosphere mostly due to Sociology professor Bradley Wright’s thoughtful 11-part treatment on his blog. 

If you have any questions about the nuts-‘n-bolts of REVEAL’s research approach, I encourage you to share them here in the comments. The last week in January, we will interview our two key researchers, Eric Arnson and Terry Schweizer for the REVEAL podcast.  They’ll answer your questions and we’ve also invited Bradley Wright to join them for a detailed discussion about the issues he raises in his posts.  (Update: Bradley is working out some scheduling issues and it looks like he’ll be able to make it)

In the meantime, I have some initial responses to Professor Wright’s blog posts I hope will answer some basic questions people are having.  Know that I have great respect for the thoroughness of his academic overview and insights.  I think he does a terrific job describing REVEAL’s research from the lens of a social scientist.

Who does REVEAL serve?

REVEAL’s intended audience is senior pastors, and our goal is to give them a tool akin to the finest available in the secular world to help them better understand their congregation and make the best decisions possible to advance God’s kingdom in their local church. 

If REVEAL were primarily intended for social scientists, our research approach would have been very different.  Our goal has not been to create an empirical view of spiritual growth based on randomized, longitudinal samples as suggested by Professor Wright. We plan to do that eventually, but it’s not our primary aim. Our current goal is to help senior pastors gain important insight real-time…today…not years from now.

Reaction from pastors in the 200 churches has affirmed our sense that these results have much to offer.  More than once, we’ve heard pastors say things like “I had a feeling this is where my people are, but now I have evidence to back it up”. 

We hear from many pastors that having the results from REVEAL in black and white can be a call to action.  In February, we will interview a few senior pastors whose churches have taken part in REVEAL to hear their perspectives on how REVEAL’s findings have impacted their ministry.

Why Marketplace Research instead of Social Science Research?

In the marketplace, where I first experienced the power of this kind of research, we did not wait for longitudinal data, which can take years. We did “point-in-time” research – or, as Professor Wright refers to it, “cross-sectional” research – capturing people’s attitudes, motivations, behaviors, and needs regarding our products/services at a singular moment.

From that “point in time,” we extrapolated a hypothesis about how the market worked and where we fit into that market, based on customer needs. Then we made decisions. The power of this point-in-time “attitude-and-behavior-based” research is evident in the extraordinary success of organizations that rely on it.

The goal of REVEAL is to put “attitude-and-behavior-based” knowledge in the hands of senior pastors as input into their prayerful decision-making. That’s what REVEAL is all about – informing decisions based on “applied” marketplace research.

What’s Next for REVEAL?

Stay tuned for more REVEAL findings. We have a long-term commitment to understanding spiritual growth and our view is growing and changing as we add to our database (we now have over 60,000 responses from 200 churches).  We’ll add an additional 300 churches in the next two months including 100 international churches.

In the meantime, we are confident that REVEAL’s methodology reflects the same high analytic standards that have inspired countless success stories in organizations around the world. Our hope is that we’ll provide that same level of insight to churches, large and small, and that we’ll all learn together what God wants to reveal to us.

We are also hopeful, as Professor Wright concluded at the end of his 11-part series on REVEAL “…that REVEAL will be looked upon as an important step in the American Christian Church discovering the value of empirical data.”

Comments

[Ben Dubow]

Thanks for posting this--great stuff.

I have had the privilege of talking through these issues with Brad (who serves on our church's board and is a good personal friend) many times over the last months since the Leadership Summit and have enjoyed his blogs on the topic. I also count it as a privilege to have our church be one of the 500 churches participating in the survey (we are in the process of collecting responses as we speak!)

While I very much appreciate Brad's critiques, I have to say as a Lead Pastor I am deeply thankful for Reveal and it has already had a major impact on my own thinking and our strategic planning, organizational structure, teaching ministry, and spiritual formation process at our church.

We are a young (3 years) and small (about 200 on a weekend) church and having access to this type of research has been a real blessing. While some would consider us "emerging" (which is fine as long as you don't mean it as an insult, lol) the questions being asked in Reveal are relevant and central to any ministry, any pastor, any church.

Are we doing what God has called us to do? That is the question! Thanks for your generosity sharing what you are learning with the rest of us!!!

[Curtis]

I have been curious about REVEAL for several months now. I'm a grad student in psychology and I'm researching spiritual growth. Now as someone who admittedly has not read the book, which may answer some of these technical questions and comments, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts.

1) There is a substantial amount of research that has been done on spiritual growth. How did REVEAL use this knowledge in developing the measures that were being used? Did REVEAL start from scratch or was it building on earlier work?

2) Will you publish the technical results of these surveys with a clear statement of methodology and statistical analysis? Since I have not heard any details on the actual results, it is difficult to feel confident about the findings.

3) Do you expect to receive new findings from the vast number of surveys being distributed to churches? While that may seem valuable to those unfamiliar with these types of studies, from a statistical standpoint it does not seem to make sense to replicate a study that already has such a large N.

4) Do you plan to study different aspects of spiritual growth and faith in future surveys?

5) I would encourage a longitudinal study that measures current involvement in ministry programs to predict future spiritual growth, controlling for as many extraneous variables as possible. This seems like a better way to assess the effect of spiritual programs on spiritual growth.

6) The areas that I have done my research in have been religious motivation (intrinsic vs. extrinsic), God concept (what do people believe God is like?), religious coping (how do people use their faith to deal with problems), and spiritual well-being (do they believe God loves them and God has a plan for their future). I have looked at how these variables have changed for adolescents while at a church camp. Although these are simply my interests, I think it reflects the presence of a much larger body of knowledge that lies outside the scope of the current study. I hope that future surveys can integrate these other forms of studying spirituality.

Finally, I'm extremely grateful for your work! I'm excited to see that spiritual assessment is being seen as an acceptable part of church work. While there are some dangers and limitations to doing this work, it has the potential to add to our knowledge and contradict our assumptions. We're really just beginning to venture into this invaluable source of knowledge.

Thanks,
Curtis

[Joe Miller]

I created this cartoon, linked in my URL, to illustrate some of the key points surrounding this discussion. Check it out and let me know what you think.

And yes, it is critical of the approach, but I find it only fair to give you a chance to respond publicly to my public concern.

[Mark Thompson]

I just read REVEAL Where Are You? I would like to suggest an observation for further research as it relates to your look at the Dissatisfied segment. Your observation assumes that the Dissatisfied are dissatisfied with how their local church serves them, rather I would suggest many may be dissatisfied with their ability to serve through the local church. In other words when you get very active in your local church you can quickly grow tired of the entrenched leadership, both clergy and lay. They are after all broken humans with large, flawed egos - often too prideful and self interested to allow another member to follow their sense of Christ leading. Consequently, it is often more effective to grow and serve through other organizations, both formal para-Christian missions and informal or personal missions. Thus they would remain in worship with the local church but describe their relationship as dissatisfying.

[Bill Alexy]

Has the research extended to or plan to extend to orthodox and catholic congregations?

It might be interesting to compare a formal liturgical worship based on ancient traditions with progressive rapid paced advancement found in many contemporary evangelical circles.

A Christian who believes he is literally partaking in the body of Christ during the Eucharist might exhibit a love for Christ because he is intimately connected with Christ's sacrifice.

The liturgy also has teaching tools built into it that inform one on how to behave as a Christian, through active participation. This liturgical participation teaches that one needs to cooperate with the work of the Spirit, by asking for grace, receiving grace and living gracefully.

It seems the research will be even more highly esteemed if it has been made large enough to sample the entire body of Christ.

[Cindy Howard]

I'm interested in your findings, but I have this uneasy feeling as I read the information. The tone of these ideas is not a rebuke... but more a question. It seems we are still approaching spiritual growth like a business. I haven't read everything (so maybe I'm missing something) but I don't see the role of prayer and the Holy Spirit in leading and guiding us. It almost seems like "how can we manage spiritual growth without God". (I know that isn't the case). What is the role of fasting and praying for a change of heart in people. We can't shrink wrap God. Just the talk of "best practices" reminds me of how God rarely did the same miracle twice. God doesn't want us to put our confidence in our practices... but in Him alone.

[anton]

I'm really waiting for the podcast. It's really interesting

[Ed Bryson]

I just watched Hybels video. Congrats for the courage to self study. WC is a leader in innovation and integrity. This study will add great value...hopefully. I'm afraid, though, they still don't get it. As long as our generic evangelical culture stays enmeshed with reformed theology and its legal metaphor for the atonement, leaders will gravitate to self-help. There is theological gold to be mined in trinitarian theology and nuptial / familial metaphors found there. The gravitational pull then becomes relationship, out of which grows the intimacy serious believers crave. Keep seeking WC. We are pulling for you.
Ed Bryson
Director of Development
Francis Asbury Society