SURVEY ASKS AMERICANS TO DESCRIBE THE IDEAL CHURCH

VENTURA, Calif. (EP) -- A century ago there wasn't a lot of question about where Americans would attend church. Most people went to same church as their parents, which was the same church their grandparents had attended. Church shopping was an unknown practice. People changed churches only when they moved, when the church went through a split, or when you entered a "mixed marriage" -- meaning people from two different churches married and had to choose one or the other to attend.

Today America is a society of choice and competition, and church loyalty is a casualty. More than one out of seven adults change their church each year, and another one out of six attend a carefully chosen handful of selected churches on a rotating basis rather than sticking with the same church week after week. While Americans are religious people and church remains an important aspect of life for tens of millions of people, there is less concern about "brand loyalty" to churches than there used to be.

In a new survey the Barna Research Group asked American churchgoers what qualities they would look for if they moved to a different community and were seeking a church to attend. Of the 22 factors tested, six proved to be of great importance to people, three others were of moderate importance, and the remaining 13 were of lesser importance.

The top three factors were the beliefs and doctrine of the church, how much the people in the church seem to care about each other, and the quality of the sermons. A majority of churchgoers listed each of these factors as "extremely important." The other three items that are the highest priority for church shoppers are friendliness to visitors, involvement in serving the poor and disadvantaged, and the quality of programs and classes for children. Roughly 45 percent of adult churchgoers identified each of these elements as "extremely important."

How much the person liked the pastor, the denominational affiliation of the church, and the quality of the adult Sunday school classes were of only moderate importance. About one-third of the respondents deemed the first two of those factors to be "extremely important," while one-quarter ranked the quality of adult classes at that same level of importance.

Qualities deemed relatively unimportant in the survey include worship music, convenience, comfort, small groups, and the identity of others who attend.

Of course, different people have different priorities. For instance, women placed greater emphasis on sermon quality, the type of worship music and programs for children to be more important than men did.

Among other distinctions:

* Baby Busters were less interested in the quality of adult Sunday school and in the quality of the music in worship services. Baby Boomers were less interested in churches that help the disadvantaged, less concerned about the convenience of the service times, less worried about the quality of music, less attuned to the comfort of the sanctuary, and less interested in the ease of parking. Builders (those in their fifties and sixties) were the most concerned about a church's theology and doctrine, the type of music used in the worship services, and the importance of having good friends at the church.

* Education made a huge difference in people's views. Those who had not attended college were more interested than college graduates in the quality of children's programs, the type and quality of worship music, the quality of the adult Sunday school program, and the various convenience factors -- the times of the services, the ease of parking and the comfort of the worship hall. In addition, college graduates were notably less concerned about matters such as how much the people seem to care for each other and the quality of the sermons preached.

* Compared to married people, single adults attached much greater importance to factors such as the type of music in the worship services, the amount of music used and the ease of parking. Unmarried adults were less tuned in to the theological beliefs and doctrine of the church and to how much the people in the church cared about each other than were married adults.

* Denominational distinctions were substantial. Catholics were much less concerned than were Protestants about theology and doctrine, how much the church members care about each other, friendliness toward visitors, the quality of the sermons and the quality of adult Christian education. Catholics were more concerned than Protestants about the length of the sermons, the convenience of service times and the denominational affiliation of the church (i.e. whether it is Catholic or not). Baptists assigned relatively greater importance to six factors: how much the people care about each other; how friendly the church is to visitors, involvement in helping the disadvantaged, quality of the sermons, quality of the adult Sunday school, and quality of programs for children. People in mainline Protestant churches placed much less emphasis than others on three factors: helping the disadvantaged, how far the church is located from their home, and the convenience of the times of the services. By contrast, evangelicals pl aced a high priority on the theological beliefs and doctrines of the church, how much the people care about each other, how friendly they are to visitors, involvement in helping the disadvantaged, quality of sermons, and quality of adult Sunday school.

George Barna, president of the research firm that conducted the study, said some of the distinctions found in the survey may be misleading. "The most fundamental differences are those between Protestants and Catholics regarding doctrine and practice," he said. "Apart from that, however, the big story is that people are people. They want substance from their church; they want to make a difference in the world through their church; and they need to feel connected to God and to other God-loving people as a result of their church experience. If those factors are in place, people will put up with a lot just so they can have these primary spiritual needs met. If a church does not satisfy these particular needs, people will feel spiritually unfulfilled and restless and probably search elsewhere for a church home."

The survey of adults was a national telephone survey of 1015 adults. The maximum sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.