"Mystery Worshippers" Rate Churches in Britain

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LONDON - Singing hymns and clasping hands in prayer, they look like regular church-going Christians. But the worshippers at some Sunday services in Britain definitely are not.

Instead they are mostly nonbelievers paid $60 a pop to rate churches in Britain on everything from sermon length to after-service refreshments.

For decades, businesses have used "mystery shoppers," researchers dispatched to retail stores to pose as consumers, to evaluate customer service and quality control. Now, churches are turning to "mystery worshippers" to visit and rate their performance.

The program was launched in November by Christian Research of London and expands this month before reaching nationwide in May.

Religious experts agree that the research could be beneficial for any church seeking to understand how to best draw and keep worshippers in an age of declining attendance.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080105/NEWS28/801050389

You have heard of mystery shoppers, who go to stores, and rate them? Apparently, a group in England have taken over that concept. They are hiring people, paying them to go to church, and rate the quality of the services, the facilities, and the friendliness of the people.

In great Britain, church attendance has dropped to 6%, as opposed to 40% of Americans who are churchgoers.

What do you think of this? Obviously, non-believers would have an especially subjective view of church, and their reactions might prove interesting. Do you think that this strategy, together with plans to make churchgoing attractive to people, will increase church attendance?

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I don't think anything will reverse the decline in church attendance in the United Kingdom. It's not due to boring sermons or uncomfortable pews or draughty churches. It's because, as time goes by, fewer and fewer people believe in the Christian God. I shall inject a personal note by saying that I regard this as an entirely healthy thing.

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Obviously.

As more and more people want to get divorced, assist in abortions, have homosexual relationships, do a bit of thieving below the cop's radar, hate their neighbours and indulge in any activity they feel like what can you expect.

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contrex- I agree with you. I think that in a time where people were more pious, a boring sermon might elicit grumbles, but the parishoner would not stop going to church because of that. He might switch churches though.

What I find interesting is the difference in percentage of churchgers between Americans and English people.

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spendius wrote:

Obviously.

As more and more people want to get divorced, assist in abortions, have homosexual relationships, do a bit of thieving below the cop's radar, hate their neighbours and indulge in any activity they feel like what can you expect.

Are you describing Catholic Priests?

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Public opinion polls generally do not report real opinions and events. They report only the information that the individuals choose to tell the pollsters. Quite often, their answers will be distorted by a phenomenon called "social desirability bias." Pollees answer questions according to what they think they should be doing, rather than what they are doing. For example, a poll by Barna Research showed that 17% of American adults say that they tithe -- i.e. they give 10 to 13% of their income to their church. Only 3% actually do.

Hadaway, Marler, and Mark Chaves counted the number of people attending four Protestant churches in Ashtabula County, OH, and in 18 Roman Catholic dioceses throughout the U.S. In their 1993 report they stated that actual attendance was only about half of the level reported in public opinion surveys: 20% vs. 40% for Protestants, and 28% vs. 50% for Roman Catholics. 1,11

They later returned to Ashtabula County to measure attendance by Roman Catholics. They physically counted the number of attendees at each mass over several months. They concluded that 24% of Catholics in he county actually attended mass. They then polled residents of the county by telephone. 51% of Roman Catholic respondents said that they had attended church during the previous week. Apparently, most were lying.

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Phoenix said:

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Obviously, non-believers would have an especially subjective view of church

Yes, which is why it would make their opinions non-objective and less meaningful.

Non-believers are going into the building with preconceived and possibly (probably) negative notions about what will happen there. Anyone who accepts the judgement of another person's religious experience based on what that person says about the length of the sermon or quality of the refreshments (although what else could a non-believer really comment on?) is pretty sad.

Maybe fewer people do believe in God (in fact I'm sure that's true) and maybe that's why fewer people go to church now - but I also know another factor is that life is so busy during the week for dual income, fulltime working couples that it's hard to fit church in.

There are reasons having to do with philosophy which affected my churchgoing status - but the major reason I stopped going on a regular basis is that I got a fulltime job. Bottom line...
And you might think that says something about my lack of commitment, but I do happen to be someone who will read, think and even play the piano and sing on my own...so on occasion- I still have my own little worship services. Laughing

- just not on Sunday morning in a building with other people.

But when I do find a church to go to that is worth the time and trouble(and I had found one in England) it's one of my favorite places to be...and it has absolutely nothing to do with snacks...
And that's something a non-believer could never understand or hope to communicate to someone else.

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Phoenix32890 wrote:

What I find interesting is the difference in percentage of churchgers between Americans and English people.

I suppose, it's the same in most other (European) countries.

Latest figures (from about 2002) for the Evangelical/Protestant Christians were 3.9% church goers, for the Catholic Church 16% (1999 data).
(Catholic is down in recent years to about 10 - 12% - even in strong Catholic regions it not above 15%)

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Quote:

Phoenix said:

Obviously, non-believers would have an especially subjective view of church

Yes, which is why it would make their opinions non-objective and less meaningful.

Nonsense. Believers have a "subjective" view of church. Everybody's view of everything is "subjective" by definition.

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Re: "Mystery Worshippers" Rate Churches in Britain

Phoenix32890 wrote:

You have heard of mystery shoppers, who go to stores, and rate them? Apparently, a group in England have taken over that concept. They are hiring people, paying them to go to church, and rate the quality of the services, the facilities, and the friendliness of the people.

From their homepage

Quote:

Vision:
To encourage change in Christian culture so that by 2010 more churches are growing

Mission:
Giving Christian leaders key information and insights to enable them to plan forward effectively and strategically

Purpose:
That everyone may hear the Good News of God through Jesus Christ.

Mystery Worshipper in the Midlands

From The Herald, 01.01.08, page 6:

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Quote:

Nonsense. Believers have a "subjective" view of church. Everybody's view of everything is "subjective" by definition.

Yes, I guess the key word in the phrase used was "especially" subjective- in other words, even more subjective than usual, and implying (by the simple fact that they don't believe in what's going on in the building) a negative slant or bias.

But yeah - none of it's rocket science- is it?

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I would suspect that an experienced "mystery worshipper" with experience in a few churches would begin to develop a more objective view of a place. I think that what would happen is that the person would be comparing one church against another, which would lessen the impact of non-belief in his/her evaluations.

Then again, a religious person, sent to a church not of his own denomination, might easily be negatively swayed by what he perceived as "strangeness" in the way that the church conducted its business.

Factoring those two points in, I would expect that a non-religious person would be a better "mystery person", as he would be a more disinterested reviewer.

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spendius wrote:

Obviously.

As more and more people want to get divorced, assist in abortions, have homosexual relationships, do a bit of thieving below the cop's radar, hate their neighbours and indulge in any activity they feel like what can you expect.

This assumes you believe that:

-marriage is right and divorce is wrong
-you have the right to judge others in their decision to have children
-you think being gay is wrong
-you have the right to judge your neighbor's activity

How unchristian is that? christians preach judge not judge lest ye be judged... yet they're the first to post this hypocritical crap.

spendius... how's that gospel working for you? How do you justify the few thousand priests who deny their homosexuality by burying themselves in seminary?

I just love the intense, open, flagrant hypocrisy that christians lay on the table. "I don't judge, but YOU'RE GOING TO HELL BECAUSE I SAY SO."

Jeez. Let's get with the 12th century, shall we?

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Phoenix32890 wrote:

I would suspect that an experienced "mystery worshipper" with experience in a few churches would begin to develop a more objective view of a place. I think that what would happen is that the person would be comparing one church against another, which would lessen the impact of non-belief in his/her evaluations.

Then again, a religious person, sent to a church not of his own denomination, might easily be negatively swayed by what he perceived as "strangeness" in the way that the church conducted its business.

Factoring those two points in, I would expect that a non-religious person would be a better "mystery person", as he would be a more disinterested reviewer.

Perhaps you should start your own busines here, Phoenix :wink:

Those researchers are all "not regular church-goers", the research is done for the "Heart of England Christian Resources Exhibition" ...

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Actually, if the truth be told, I might just enjoy that job. I have been to a number of church and temple services, (usually funerals). I have found that I really like the ones that are big on tradition and pomp. I see it as high theatre, a tribute not to a diety, but to the creativity of human beings. (I also love organ music).

I used to say, that if I ever turned religious, (which is HIGHLY unlikely), I would become either a Catholic (and go to a church with a traditional Latin mass) or an Episcopalian. I think that those groups turn religious practice into a high art form!

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Phoenix32890 wrote:

I used to say, that if I ever turned religious, (which is HIGHLY unlikely), I would become either a Catholic (and go to a church with a traditional Latin mass) or an Episcopalian. I think that those groups turn religious practice into a high art form![/color][/b]

I'd go Catholic - I just love all the statues and paintings.

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curtis-

I made no judgements. You have a comprehension problem.

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Spendius, perhaps you could explain exactly what you did mean, because I think I share Curtis' comprehension problem.

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Oi! to be sure sire. Anything to oblige a fellow A2Ker

I was responding to this post-

Quote:

I don't think anything will reverse the decline in church attendance in the United Kingdom. It's not due to boring sermons or uncomfortable pews or draughty churches. It's because, as time goes by, fewer and fewer people believe in the Christian God. I shall inject a personal note by saying that I regard this as an entirely healthy thing.

When I said-

Quote:

As more and more people want to get divorced, assist in abortions, have homosexual relationships, do a bit of thieving below the cop's radar, hate their neighbours and indulge in any activity they feel like what can you expect.

it was merely a sociological observation that is both well known and true in my own experience. It is a question of tailoring one's beliefs to suit one's sense of self-esteem. Birth control, which is self evidently demeaning to women, is the usual reason and it was an oversight that caused me to miss it from my list.

e.g. Mr Dawkins is on his 3rd marriage so it is hardly likely that he will go into bat for a long established institution which condemns such behaviour and highly likely that he will seek to discredit such an institution.

It is a fact that a decline in religious belief has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in all the factors I gave.

I was in no way being judgemental and I'm sorry if I gave you that impression.

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"Mystery Worshippers" Rate Churches in Britain

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