Mennonite Church USA

Mennonite Church USA begins Church Member Profile 2006 study

NEWTON, Kan. (Mennonite Church USA) - Mennonite Church USA recently began a two-year study of members from 120 congregations called the Church Member Profile 2006.

The study, which also will evaluate two other Anabaptist denominations - the Church of the Brethren and the Brethren in Christ - will serve as a follow-up to two previous surveys done in 1972 and 1989. The primary goal of the study is to collect data on church members' beliefs and opinions and whether or how they have changed since 1972 and 1989. Those leading the study also hope to gain insight to Mennonite Church USA's increasing number of Racial/Ethnic members and congregations.

Conrad L. Kanagy, associate professor of sociology at Elizabethtown College and an ordained minister in Lancaster Mennonite Conference, will direct the study of Mennonite Church USA congregations. The Young Center of Elizabethtown College will conduct the survey, and Donald B. Kraybill will serve as senior project director. Carl Bowman will direct the study for the Church of the Brethren.

"We can use this to capture 35 years of change," Kanagy says. "A lot has happened since that last survey in 1989, and this study will give us a sense of where people are as well as where we are going as a church. This is a significant opportunity to get a picture of the church that we don't currently have."

By evaluating how members' opinions have changed since 1972, Kanagy said churchwide leaders - ranging from the executive director to conference ministers and congregational pastors - will be able to examine what the denomination's future will or should look like. The study's findings will be presented at San Jose 2007, and at least one book is expected to be written on the data collected.

The questionnaire for Church Member Profile 2006 was created after in-depth consultation with more than 100 people across the denomination including scholars, conference ministers, agency leaders and pastors. It includes questions about each respondent's faith story, devotional practices, religious beliefs, family life and background, congregational involvement, evangelism, political views and more. Questions from previous surveys also will be included.

More than 3,000 members from 120 congregations will receive the questionnaire in mid February. The sample was randomly selected from congregational membership lists, and between 15 and 30 people were chosen from each congregation, depending on its size. The study includes congregations of various sizes and from each of Mennonite Church USA's 21 area conferences.

In addition, the project also includes an intentional effort to survey members of Mennonite Church USA's Racial/Ethnic congregations. They represent 18 percent of the denomination's congregations, and members have been underrepresented in previous surveys.

"Some of the largest and most rapidly growing congregations in Mennonite Church USA are the Racial/Ethnic congregations," Kanagy says. "And yet knowledge about our brothers and sisters in these congregations is often fairly limited."

Kanagy is hopeful the study's results will enable the denomination to understand and hear the stories of God's work among Racial/Ethnic congregations as well as "bring about forums for developing new conversations and strengthening relationships across Raical/Ethnic boundaries that remain in the church."

"My prayer is that the responses of members to this survey will help to provide clarity and direction for pastors, congregations, area conferences and agencies who are discerning God's plans and purposes in this new century. I trust that God's Spirit will use this project to provide new insights, to sharpen our sense of identity and to motivate each of us to do our part as we move toward the fulfillment of God's reign," Kanagy says.

Sidebar: What's changed since 1972?

Changes among North American Mennonites since 1972, the date of the first Church Member Profile study, include the integration of the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Church to create Mennonite Church USA. About 25 percent of current Mennonite Church USA congregations joined or have been founded since 1972, and other congregations have left Mennonite Church USA since its transformation.

Generational change is another significant factor. Some respondents who were part of the earlier surveys are deceased and have been replaced by their children and grandchildren. For example, baby boomers who answered the first Church Member Profile Survey in 1972 are now approaching or entering retirement.

The fastest growing part of Mennonite Church USA is Racial/Ethnic congregations. It's a population that, for the most part, has joined the denomination since 1972. Racial/Ethnic congregations now represent about 18 percent of all Mennonite Church USA congregations, and three of the denomination's six largest congregations are Racial/Ethnic.

Sidebar: About the original studies

Nearly 35 years ago, Howard Kauffman and Leland Harder opened a new window of understanding into Mennonite faith and practice through their survey of members in five Anabaptist denominations. Conducted in 1972, their study was entitled Church Member Profile I. Along with Leo Driedger, they repeated the study in 1989. Major findings of both projects were published by Herald Press as Anabaptists Four Centuries Later: A Profile of Five Mennonite and Brethren in Christ Denominations (1975) and The Mennonite Mosaic: Identity and Modernization (1991).