How to Use this Site
PAGE INDEX:
A. How can I use this site?
B. Why should religious leaders use information on this site?
C. Getting the facts for any question.
D. Cross-tabulating answers to two questions.
E. View a summary of changes in congregations since 1998.
F. Should I focus on congregations or persons in congregations?
G. How to read the results.
H. Glossary of terms.
________________________________________
A. How can I use this site?
You can read about the survey project or review the survey methodology and questionnaire itself. You can also learn about more extensive writings about the findings of the research or contact the researcher.
Also, through a simple selection process, you can find out basic results from almost any question asked on the survey. You can also pick any two of the survey questions and create your own cross-tabulations of responses to those questions. Both of these searches can provide information that reflects the number of congregations in the U.S. or the number of persons in U.S. congregations.
Explore the site and the NCS survey information and let us know if you have questions.
B. Why should religious leaders use information on this site?
The results from this study allow religious leaders across the country to compare their own congregations to a national sample of other congregations.
- They will be able to see what other congregations like theirs are doing when it comes to worship, religious education, social ministries, and other activities.
- They will be able to learn how their congregations compare to others on characteristics like size and staffing.
- They will be able to understand better which of the issues and challenges they face also are faced by many other congregations.
- And they will be able to see which changes their congregations have experienced are broad changes happening in many congregations.
Religious leaders and people in congregations often find that knowing more about the ways in which their own congregation compares with others enables them to understand better their own experiences, situations, and practices. The context provided by the National Congregations Study helps congregations to better understand and assess where they are and how they are doing as a congregation.
C. Getting the facts for any question.
You can select any question asked in the survey and get the number and percentage of answers for each response category for that question. This is called the "Frequency Distribution." This will also give you the total number of responses and how many congregations did not answer it. You can get these findings to represent the number of congregations or the number of persons in congregations. For instance, this analysis would allow you to find out the percent of congregations that have applause in their services. You could also find the percentage of persons who do and don't experience applause in their congregations' services.
To create one (or several at a time) frequency tables of results, visit the create general frequencies page. See the "How to read the results" and "Glossary of terms" topics below if you have questions.
D. Cross-tabulating answers to two questions.
You can select any two questions (also called "variables") asked in the survey and cross-tabulate answers to them. By choosing a variable to display along the left side of the table and another to display across the top of the table, you will be able to see how the two variables relate. This will produce a "cross-tabulation" table. You can get these findings to represent the number of congregations or the number of persons in congregations. For instance, by cross-tabulating whether or not congregations have applause in their services with congregational size, you could see if larger or smaller congregations have more applause in their services. From a different perspective, you also could find out if the percentage of persons in congregations with applause varies by the size of the congregation.
To create a cross-tabulation table and compare two variables visit the "cross-tabulate two questions" page. See the "How to read the results" and "Glossary of terms" topics below if you have questions.
E. View a summary of changes in congregations since 1998.
Since the NCS surveyed congregations in 1998 and in 2006-07, we can track continuity and change. Click here for a summary of changes since 1998.
If you want to know about the characteristics of the average congregation or if you want your results to reflect the percentage of congregations of a certain type, then use the "number of congregations" option. If you want to know about the characteristics of the congregation attended by the average worshipper or if you want your results to reflect the percentage of people in congregations of a certain type, then use the "number of persons" option.
For instance, in exploring the facts about the gender of the senior leader, you may want to see what percent of congregations are led by males and by females. To get this, you would create a "table to reflect the number of congregations." And get the result that 90% of congregations have male leadership while 10% have female senior leadership according to the 1998 survey.
On the other hand, you might be interested in the percent of people who attend U.S. congregations that are led by male or female senior clergy. Then you would use the option to create a "table to reflect the number of persons in congregations." This result would show that 94.4% of U.S. worshippers are in congregations led by a male and 5.6% are in congregations with a female senior leader.
The same two perspectives are available when comparing two questions. For instance, you may want to ask what percentages of male- and female-led congregations have a particular characteristic, such as having handed out voter guides. To get this, you would create a "table to reflect the number of congregations."
Or you might want to use the option to create a "table to reflect the number of persons in congregations" if you were more interested in the percentage of people attending female-led congregations that also use electric guitars in worship compared to the percentage of people in male-led congregations that also use electric guitars.
F. Should I focus on congregations or persons in congregations?
Do you want to know about the characteristics of the average congregation or the characteristics of the congregation attended by the average worship service attendee? Do you want your findings to reflect the number of congregations of a certain type or the number of persons in U.S. congregations of a certain type? These questions point to subtly different perspectives on the same information. In both 1998 and 2006-07, the average congregation, for example, has 75 regular participants; the average attendee, however, is in a congregation with 400 regular participants. In 2006-07, to give another example, 45 percent of congregations have web sites, but 74 percent of attendees are in congregations with web sites. The difference, of course, is that large congregations are more likely to have web sites than small congregations.
If you want to know about the characteristics of the average congregation or if you want your results to reflect the percentage of congregations of a certain type, then use the "number of congregations" option. If you want to know about the characteristics of the congregation attended by the average worshipper or if you want your results to reflect the percentage of people in congregations of a certain type, then use the "number of persons" option.
For instance, in exploring the facts about the gender of the senior leader, you may want to see what percent of congregations are led by males and by females. To get this, you would create a "table to reflect the number of congregations." And get the result that 90% of congregations have male leadership while 10% have female senior leadership according to the 1998 survey.
On the other hand, you might be interested in the percent of people who attend U.S. congregations that are led by male or female senior clergy. Then you would use the option to create a "table to reflect the number of persons in congregations." This result would show that 94.4% of U.S. worshippers are in congregations led by a male and 5.6% are in congregations with a female senior leader.
The same two perspectives are available when comparing two questions. For instance, you may want to ask what percentages of male- and female-led congregations have a particular characteristic, such as having handed out voter guides. To get this, you would create a "table to reflect the number of congregations."
Or you might want to use the option to create a "table to reflect the number of persons in congregations" if you were more interested in the percentage of people attending female-led congregations that also use electric guitars in worship compared to the percentage of people in male-led congregations that also use electric guitars.
G. How to read the results.
Help Reading Frequency Tables that Reflect the Number of Congregations
These tables provide basic information about the percentage of U.S. congregations that have any of the characteristics about which we have information. Frequency distributions list all of the possible ways a congregation can be classified with respect to a given topic, and then add up all of the congregations that fall into each category.
In this example, you can see what percentage of U.S. congregations have each of three types of theological orientation: More Conservative, Right in the Middle, and More Liberal. The key numbers are in the "valid percent" column. This table tells us, for example, that 29.4 percent of congregations (in 1998) were described as theologically "right in the middle."
Response |
Frequency |
Percent |
Valid Percent |
Cumulative Percent |
MORE CONSERVATIVE |
718 |
58.1 |
59.3 |
59.3 |
RIGHT IN MIDDLE |
356 |
28.8 |
29.4 |
88.7 |
MORE LIBERAL |
137 |
11.1 |
11.3 |
100.0 |
Missing |
24 |
2.0 |
|
|
Definitions for key terms in this table can be found below. Details about the variables you have selected, or the exact wording of survey questions, can be found in the questionnaires and codebooks for the Wave 1 and Wave 2 surveys.
Help Reading Frequency Tables that Reflect the Number of Persons in Congregations
These tables provide basic information about the percentage of U.S. worshippers that attend congregations having any of the characteristics about which we collected information. Frequency distributions list all of the possible ways a congregation can be classified with respect to a given topic, and then add up all of the congregations that fall into each category.
In this example, you can see what percentage of people attending U.S. congregations are in congregations that have each of three types of theological orientation: More Conservative, Right in the Middle, and More Liberal. This table tells us that 37.5% of people who attend worship services are in congregations that were described as theologically "right in the middle."
Response |
Frequency |
Percent |
Valid Percent |
Cumulative Percent |
MORE CONSERVATIVE |
635 |
51.3 |
52.5 |
52.5 |
RIGHT IN MIDDLE |
454 |
36.7 |
37.5 |
90.0 |
MORE LIBERAL |
120 |
9.7 |
10.0 |
100.0 |
Missing |
27 |
2.2 |
|
|
Definitions for key terms in this table can be found below. Details about the variables you have selected, or the exact wording of survey questions, can be found in the questionnaires and codebooks for the Wave 1 and Wave 2 surveys.
Help Reading Cross-Tabulation Tables that Reflect the Number of Congregations
These tables put congregations into the categories of the two variables you have selected. These cross-tabulations are set up so that you can see how many congregations in each category listed on the left of the table have the characteristics identified along the top of the table. They should be read "across" each line of the table. In this example, you can see how the length of a congregation's sermon breaks down for each different type of theological orientation. For example, the first line of this table says that 9 percent of theologically conservative congregations have sermons that are 10 minutes or less, 54.1 percent have sermons lasting from 11 to 30 minutes, and 36.8 percent have sermons exceeding 30 minutes.
|
Length of sermon |
|||
Theological orientation |
0 to 10 min. |
11 to 30 min. |
More than 30 min. |
Row Totals |
MORE CONSERVATIVE |
9.0% |
54.1% |
36.8% |
59.2% (705) |
RIGHT IN MIDDLE |
13.0% |
53.8% |
33.1% |
29.5% (351) |
MORE LIBERAL |
21.2% |
68.7% |
10.2% |
11.3% (134) |
Column Totals |
11.6% (137) |
55.7% (663) |
32.7% (390) |
100% (1191) |
| Significance: .0000 | ||||
| Number of Missing Observations: 45 | ||||
You can also use these tables to examine differences between different types of congregations. This can be done by comparing a percentage from one line with the analogous percentage from a different line. In this example, 36.8 percent of the theologically conservative congregations have sermons longer than 30 minutes, while only 10.4 percent of theologically liberal congregations have sermons that long.
If the "significance" value at the bottom of the table is .05 or less, you may conclude with 95% confidence that the two variables in the table you are examining really are related to each other. If that significance value is larger than .05, there is better than a 5% chance that any differences in the table occur by chance and do not represent a real association between these two variables. In this example, the significance value is .0000, which is less than .05, so it is correct to say with 95% confidence that a congregation's theological orientation is related to the length of a typical sermon heard in that congregation.
Definitions for key terms in this table can be found below. Details about the variables you have selected, or the exact wording of survey questions, can be found in the questionnaires and codebooks for the Wave 1 and Wave 2 surveys.
Help Reading Cross-Tabulation Tables that Reflect the Number of Persons in Congregations
These tables put congregations into the categories of the two variables you have selected. These cross-tabulations are set up so that you can see, of all people attending congregations in each category listed on the left of the table, what percentage are in congregations that also have the characteristics identified across the top of the table. Interpret these tables by reading "across" each line of the table. In this example, you can see how the length of a congregation's service breaks down for each different type of theological orientation. For example, the first line of this table says that, of all worshippers attending theologically conservative congregations, 14 percent attend congregations having sermons that are 10 minutes or less, 57.1 percent attend congregations having sermons lasting from 11 to 30 minutes, and 28.9 percent attend congregations with sermons exceeding 30 minutes.
|
Length of sermon |
||||
Theological orientation |
0 to 10 min. |
11 to 30 min. |
More than 30 min. |
Row Totals |
|
MORE CONSERVATIVE |
14.1 % |
57.0% |
28.9% |
52.3% (620) |
|
RIGHT IN MIDDLE |
28.6% |
57.2% |
14.1% |
37.7% (446) |
|
MORE LIBERAL |
22.5% |
66.2% |
11.3% |
10.0% (118) |
|
Column Totals |
20.4% (241) |
58.0% (687) |
21.6% (255) |
100% (1185) |
|
| Significance: .0000 | |||||
| Number of Missing Observations: 51 | |||||
You can also use these tables to examine differences between different types of congregations. This can be done by comparing a percentage from one line with the analogous percentage from a different line. In this example, 28.9 percent of worshippers attending theologically conservative congregations attend congregations that have sermons longer than 30 minutes, while only 11 percent of worshippers attending theologically liberal congregations hear sermons lasting that long.
If the "significance" value at the bottom of the table is .05 or less, you may conclude with 95% confidence that the two variables in the table you are examining really are related to each other. If that significance value is larger than .05, there is better than a 5% chance that any differences in the table occur by chance and do not represent a real association between these two variables. In this example, the significance value is .0000, which is less than .05, so it is correct to say with 95% confidence that a congregation's theological orientation is related to the length of a typical sermon heard in that congregation.
Definitions for key terms in this table can be found below. Details about the variables you have selected, or the exact wording of survey questions, can be found in the questionnaires and codebooks for the Wave 1 and Wave 2 surveys.
H. Glossary of terms.
RESPONSE
Labels in this column describe each of the possible response categories into which congregations can fall regarding the topic you've selected.
FREQUENCY
Figures in this column tell you the weighted number of congregations in the sample that fall into each possible response category. Because of the sampling procedure employed in this study, these numbers have been weighted, and are therefore difficult to interpret. It is best to ignore this column in favor of the information presented in the Valid Percent column.
PERCENT
These numbers tell you the percent of congregations that fall into each possible response category, as well as the percent of congregations sampled that have missing information on this topic. The information in the Valid Percent column is preferable to this information because the missing cases are excluded from the calculation of the valid percentages.
VALID PERCENT
These numbers tell you the percent of congregations that fall into each response category, ignoring the congregations with missing information on this topic. These figures are probably the most informative in the table, because the missing values are excluded from the calculation of the percentages.
CUMULATIVE PERCENT
The cumulative percent reflects the percent of congregations that fall into a response category plus the percent of people attending congregations that fall into all of the categories above that category.
MISSING CASES
Sometimes representatives from congregations were unable or unwilling to provide answers to questions. These instances represent blank spaces in the data, and are therefore called missing cases. This number tells you how many congregations have missing data on the topic that you have selected.
COLUMN TOTALS
Figures in this row show the number and percentage of congregations in each column of the table, ignoring differences between the rows. There are two numbers in each column. The first number represents the weighted percent of congregations in each column. The second number represents the weighted number of congregations in each column. Because of the sampling procedure employed in this study, the number of congregations is weighted, and it is difficult to interpret. You can find more information about the sampling technique and weighting used in this study in the codebook.
ROW TOTALS
Figures in this column show the number and percentage of congregations in each row of the table, ignoring differences between the columns. There are two numbers in each row. The first number represents the weighted percent of congregations in each row. The second number represents the weighted number of congregations in each row. Because of the sampling procedure employed in this study, the number of congregations is weighted, and it is difficult to interpret. You can find more information about the sampling technique and weighting used in this study in the codebook.
SIGNIFICANCE
These numbers tell you if the two variables in your table are related. By simply looking at the percentages in the table you can get a sense if the two variables you are examining are related to each other. In the example above, you might notice from examining the percentages in the table that having a conservative theological orientation appears to be related to having longer sermons. However, since the numbers presented in the table are based on information from a random sample of 1,236 congregations in the United States -- not from a census of all congregations -- it is important to assess how confident we can be that the relationship observed in this sample of 1,236 congregations also is present among all congregations in the United States.
The significance value allows you to determine if the two variables are related to each other. If this number is .05 or less, you may conclude with 95% confidence that the two variables in the table you are examining really are related to each other. If this number is larger than .05, there is better than a 5% chance that any differences in the table occur by chance and do not represent a real association between these two variables. In the example above, the significance value is .0000, which is less than .05, so it is correct to say with 95% confidence that a congregation's theological orientation is related to the length of a typical sermon heard in that congregation.
It is important to note that this "significance" test tells you only that the two congregational characteristics displayed in the table are related. It does not tell you anything about the nature of that relationship, nor does it tell you anything about how strongly the characteristics are related.
