According to a new study resulting in an August 2000 report “Telephoning Churches Often Proves Fruitless,” among 3764 Protestant churches conducted by the Barna Research Group, contact with a person was not established with 40% of the churches called, even though multiple callbacks - as many as 12 per church - were placed. At almost half of the churches at which human interaction was not established, there was not even an answering machine available to capture or relay a message.
The report notes that it takes an average of 2.1 telephone calls to reach a human being at a Protestant church during regular business hours on weekdays. Of the calls placed, one-third were answered on the first call; a person was not accessed until at least the fourth call at one out of every ten churches of the accessible churches.
Moreover, “mainline churches were slightly more responsive than were evangelical churches (at 73% and 66%, respectively, a person answered the church's phone). Within each of those categories were some significant divergences, though. The mainline churches ranged from a person answering the call at 83% of Episcopal churches to 66% among the American Baptist churches. Among the evangelical churches the greatest accessibility was achieved among Christian & Missionary Alliance (100%, based on a small sample) and non-denominational evangelical (80%) churches.”
The research showed that Charismatic and Pentecostal churches had substantially below-average response rates: a person answered the phone at just 53% of those churches. Independent fundamentalist churches, on the other hand, had among the highest response rates (81%).
Overall, the denominations that attract the largest numbers of people also had above-average response rates. Those included the Southern Baptist (66%), United Methodist (73%), Evangelical Lutheran (74%), Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (70%), Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (65%), Episcopal (83%), and Assembly of God (62%) churches.
These statistics shed light on a challenge for churches that hope to connect with their surrounding communities. "The exact statistics by denomination or church size are less important than the overall revelation about the inaccessibility of churches," was the reaction of George Barna, president of the research firm that conducted the study. "In a world where people are extremely busy and are suspicious of the practical value of churches, they are not likely to make three or four calls to a church before they get to speak to a human being. Churches that influence their communities emphasize connections - meaningful personal relationships built upon an attitude of mutual caring and concern. The ability to communicate both personally and on-demand is crucial to fostering trust and continuity in a relationship. If churches really want to help people, they have to be accessible. When we make it difficult for people to get our attention, we send a negative message about the heart of the church while also training them to look elsewhere during their times of need."
Barna pointed out that most churches have not exhausted the creative options available for fostering better communications. "Some churches have their calls forwarded to the homes of volunteers who will answer incoming calls on behalf of the church. Some have been hooked up to relatively inexpensive voice messaging systems that are available from the church's telephone service provider. Others have installed inexpensive telephone answering machines to at least allow people to leave messages. There are many creative and inexpensive ways for churches that are presently inaccessible to make connections easier for everyone."
The Barna Research Group, Ltd. is an independent marketing research company located in southern California. Since 1984 it has been studying cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. This research was funded solely by Barna Research as part of its continuous study of the role of faith in American life.
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