How effective do you think our congregational leaders are? That was one of the questions we asked during our Ends Survey last March to understand how well we are doing reaching our third end/goal. This end states that “we have a broad circle of effective leaders who have the resources to complete their work in service to our mission.”

The responses are shown in the first graph below. On average, survey respondents ranked our leadership effectiveness as 7.2 (on a scale of one to ten). Half of the respondents indicated an 8 or above while a quarter of the respondents selected a 6 or below. There was no great variation between members, friends and visitors, or by family status, gender or age. Congregants with over 25 years of church affiliation averaged 6.4 while folks with fewer years of experience at church averaged about 7.5.

The results were noticeably lower when the question focused on the availability of resources (see second graph below). The average dropped to 5.9 when asked how close we are to having the resources necessary to complete the work in service to our mission (such as training / budget / materials / volunteers / staff support). The following chart shows the distribution of responses. The median (half of the answers) was 6.0 and the averages of other demographics were quite similar.

In our discussion of these results, the board and I felt encouraged by the general level of trust in the leadership throughout our church while we recognized the importance of listening carefully to find ways to improve the effectiveness of our leaders further. Clearly the resources available to our leaders are seen as a limitation to living fully into our potential. We see this as a call to all of us to commit what we can in time, talent, and treasure so we can expand those resources.