On Saturday 26th January 2008 a group of members of Kings Road Church manned a stall in the market place to publicise the church and to conduct some surveys amongst the passers by. We interviewed about 100 people and asked them just 5 questions and a broad summary of the responses is as follows:-
Q1. WHEN I SAY THE WORD ‘CHURCH’, WHAT IS THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO YOUR MIND?
RESPONSES TO Q1:
32% thought of a specific building – e.g. St Peters.
26% thought of either ‘Christianity’ or just ‘religion’.
17% thought of God.
12% thought of things that take place within the church e.g. prayer, worship, hymns.
4% thought of services that the church provides. E.g. toddlers groups, youth clubs etc.
9% were not interested.
Q2 WHAT ONE THING WOULD YOU WANT TO CHANGE ABOUT CHURCH?
RESPONSES TO Q2:
14% would like it to be more welcoming and friendly.
13% would like to see it modernised and less stuffy.
6% would like to see it return to the basics of liturgy, prayer and old hymns.
6% would like church to make more of an effort to be child friendly.
10% suggested a whole variety of other things such as being more accepting of divorcees, putting women in charge, installing better heating!
51% didn’t know or didn’t care.
Q3 IS THE CHURCH RELEVANT TO YOU TODAY?
RESPONSES TO Q3:
54% - YES
37% - NO
6% - DON’T KNOW
Q4 WHAT WOULD MAKE THE CHURCH MORE RELEVANT?
RESPONSES TO Q4:
22% - get more involved in the community.
12% - modernise the church services.
5% - have more stuff for young people to get involved in.
6% - said they need to go more to make it relevant.
5% - get back to basics, how it used to be.
5% - other suggestions.
45% - don’t know/don’t care.
Q5 WHO DO YOU THINK JESUS WAS?
RESPONSES TO Q5:
52% - Son of God; God; God/man.
18% - a man from Bible times, a good man.
10% - a teacher; a miracle worker; a prophet.
4% - the Saviour of the world.
7% - other
9% - don’t know/don’t care.