This page contains results from the 2012 Sunday Services Spring Survey.
We asked our congregation to rank their view on how important certain worship service topics were. We also asked how satisfied everyone was with the current Sunday service programming in those areas.
To summarize the results, the top three most important rated topics for Sunday services are #1 spiritual growth, #2 moral and ethical issues, and #3 the UU principles.
In 2011, the congregation told us that there were five very important service topics that had the lowest satisfaction: (1) spiritual growth, (2) UU principles, (3) philosophical ideas, (4) coping with life, (5) moral and ethical issues, and (6) family relationships and values. So, the Sunday Services Committee worked hard to focus on improving services in these areas, specifically aiming at the first three.
This year’s survey showed significant improvement in the satisfaction rating of the content areas of spiritual growth and UU principles.
It also showed that of the most important service content, we need the most improvement in services related to moral and ethical issues and coping with daily life. Philosophical ideas and family relationships and values were not rated as highly in importance this year.
The worship service areas are defined in the list below:
- UU Principles
- Values & Perspectives on justice issues (e.g. social, economic, etc.)
- Judeo-Christian religious thought
- Non-western religious thought
- Moral and ethical issues (e.g. deciding between right and wrong, looking for help on making difficult decisions such as when you’re faced with a loved one on life support or theneed for an abortion)
- Coping with daily life (e.g. balancing work and family, the challenges of a modern lifestyle, etc.)
- Comparisons & discussions about religion and science & technology
- Exploring non-theological philosophical ideas (e.g. exploring reason, humanism, atheism, the search for explanation, etc.)
- Family relationships and values
- Elder adult needs & concerns
- Creative and artistic expressions
- Spiritual growth (defined as growth & development of the whole person by developing one’s inner life, interactions with others and spiritual practices)
- UU History (e.g. Unitarians, Universalists, famous UUs, merger of Unitarians & Universalists, evolution of Unitarian Universalism)
The most important quadrant to examine is the lower-right quadrant, which highlights those topics that are rated as very important but have the lowest satisfaction.
This is the Importance vs. Comparison chart from the 2011 Spring Survey:
