LENTEN WORSHIP EVALUATION

We received twenty-eight responses to questions about our experiences with Lenten worship at FUMC Hudson! Results are listed below and will be used by the summer worship team (listed below) as they plan for meaningful worship. If you would like to be on the team, please e-mail info@hudsonfumc.com. If you have comments about these questions or results, please feel free to comment below so that others can read you remarks.


What is the best time in the morning for summer worship? 8:15 9 9:30 10 10:45

1. 8:15 (11 votes) 9:30 (11 votes)
2. 9 (6 votes)
3. 10 (3 votes)
4. 10:45 (1 vote)

And the best summer day for worship? Sunday Wednesday Thursday
No votes for Wednesday or Thursday


In the season of Lent we incorporated unique elements meant to foster intimacy with God. Please rate the following on a scale of 1 (not helpful) to 5 (very helpful):

A) Visuals such as the banners, the footpath and potted plants. 1 2 3 4 5
TOTAL: 119 out of 140

B) PowerPoint Slides for announcements. 1 2 3 4 5
TOTAL: 67 out of 135

C) The “gospel” song “Over My Head” with clapping. 1 2 3 4 5
TOTAL: 101 out of 140

D) Sermons on topics like “Pain”, Loneliness” , “Fear” etc. 1 2 3 4 5
TOTAL: 122 out of 140

E) The printed program format. 1 2 3 4 5
TOTAL: 119 out of 140

F) A song after each concern/prayer petition is shared. 1 2 3 4 5
TOTAL: 72 out of 140

G) “Scripture” was a dramatic reading each day. 1 2 3 4 5
TOTAL: 103 out of 140

H) Guitar and bass with “God of Wonders” song. 1 2 3 4 5
TOTAL: 103 out of 140


What changes might we make to the sanctuary, the schedule or the program that would make worship a richer, fuller experience for you?

Keep worship traditional, reverent and respectfull
More duets and solos
Loved the trumpets, but did not like choir "play" Palm Sunday
Start on time (2 responses)
Love worship as it is (2 responses)
Keep to one hour
Use better mics
Like choir at communion
More contemporary hymns, please


Would like to be part of a team to work on summertime worship plans:

Dennis Sherman
Ron and Connie Banfill
Evelyn Rein
Donella Siktberg
Terry Johnston
Non Okarma
Julie Berard

Pastor's NOTES on data:
Thank you for taking the time to complete this short questionnaire. It obviously omits areas of worship about which we all care deeply--the importance of scripture readings, children's messages, sharing joys and concerns, etc. We can evaluate those at other times. The intention here is to allow the congregation to reflect on a few newer practices that we experienced through the season of Lent. Each category represents what I feel are potential growing edges in our church.

A) The question about visual helps me assess the congregation's interest in the Arts in worship.
The response here was uniformly strong. The congregation likes such things as flowers, potted plants, banners, creative altars and may also enjoy other forms of visual arts in worship.

B) The question about PowerPoint software used to project images for announcements helps me assess the congregations interest in visual cues such as projected hymn lyrics, outlines for sermons, video clips fro sermons and of course slides to announce upcoming events.
The response was uniformly low, suggesting that technology may feel intrusive to most people gathered for worship at FUMC.

C) The question about singing the gospel song "Up Above My Head" and being encouraged to clap helps me assess the congregation's interest in the physical expression of worship such as clapping hands, raising hands, dancing and, to a lesser extent, gives me a clue about how much congregants value participation in worship.
The response was generally positive, but there were three '1' responses (not at all helpful to worship) while there were also eight '5' responses (quite helpful). This is common in churches. Introverts and men tend to really dislike clapping and even standing and singing in worship while extraverts and women tend to enjoy it.

D) The question about sermon themes during Lent was less to help me determine whether or not I am doing a decent job of preaching (that evaluation can come later) and more to help me assess the congregation's interest in thematic preaching as opposed to preaching that follows the lectionary of prescribed readings which carry very different messages from week to week.
The response was was uniformly positive. This was the highest ranking attribute of Lenten worship reminding me that the congregation appreciates messages that apply to real life conditions and suggesting to me that future messages my cluster around themes from time to time.

E) The question about the program helps me evaluate the value of our bulletin or program.
The response was uniformly positive telling me that we do not need to switch to a different format antime soon.

F) The question about the prayer song "Stay With Me" which we sang together after each prayer petition helped me asses the congregation's interest in more ancient Christian practices such as chants.
The response was generally low at 72 with only five people answering '4' or '5'. This tells me that the music somehow detracted from the congregation's ability to be connected with God and perhaps with each other in prayer. Our traditional pattern generally includes sharing joys and concerns and then offering a pastoral prayer with the Lord's prayer afterward.

G) The question about using the narrative "dramatization" of scriptures helps me assess the congregation's openness to voices of wisdom in addition to those shared through the Bible.
The response was generally positive, although there were numerous '3' answers suggesting a good deal of ambivalence about the scripts. I do not know whether this is a response to the way the texts were written or to hearing scripture in worship, in general. People often confide to me that they tend to "tune-out" when the scripture is shared and just wait for the interpretation in the message. The results coupled with private comments lead me to suspect that it may no longer be enough for readers to simply stand in the lecturn and read the scriptures of the day.

H) The question about using bass and guitar to execute "God of Wonders" in worship helps me assess the congregation's interest in contemporary music and instruments in worship.
The response of '103' out of '140' possible suggests a positive feeling about contemporary music in worship. One rated the experience as a '1' (not helpful) and another rated it as a '2', but fifteen rated the song and instrumentation as '4' (nine responses) or '5' (eight responses). This suggests to me that there is an interest in diversifying instrumentation in morning worship and having songs like "God of Wonders" become a more regular part of morning worship.

I realize this was a simple multiple choice questionannire and the results may be filled with numerous personal caveats. For example I do not assume the congregation, because question 'H' received a 103, is ready for a band to play jazz at the 8:15 service nor would I completely rule-out use of POwerPoint in worship juts because responses were mostly negative. Rather, these results, tempered with written responses will be useful for a small group to consider as we consider summer worship.

Summer worship time was also addressed in the questionnaire. We have a quandry here. In 2007 summer worship times were 8:15 and 9:30. I assume the 10:45 time was changed because there was no Sunday School at 9:30 in the summer and because the un-air-conditioned building heats-up through the morning. In 2008 the summer worship combined the two services into one at 9am. This gave us the chance for a fuller congregation (at a time when many people vacation on weekends) and better stewardship of the staff's time. Informal feedback after last summer suggested to me that 9am was too late for 8:15 participants and too early for 10:45 participants. The survey suggests that people still favor the two seperate service times of 2007. Six prefer the 9am time. It is interesting to note that three of the 8:15 participants are more interested in the 9am time than the 8:15 time for the summer.

Thanks, againm for your input. Please feel free to comment below or send requests to be on the summer worship team to info@hudsonfumc.com.