Survey of Methodists Finds Some Worrisome Trends

United Methodist laity put more stock in clergy who are caring rather than courageous and cooperative rather than competent and they prefer honesty to imaginativeness.

Those preferences, indicated in a survey by a church agency, amount to a self-portrait of a institution in decline and fearful of bold and innovative action, according to survey analysts.

The profile of the 8.9-million-member denomination emerges from a survey by its Office of Research in the General Council on Ministries. The office, which regularly samples United Methodist opinion, based the report on a survey taken in 1991.

While urging caution in interpreting the results, based on a self-administered poll of a representative sample of 758 United Methodists, researchers drew some gloomy conclusions.

According to the survey, the values Methodist laity look for in their pastors are the kinds of characteristics associated with an institution trying to maintain itself.

“One possible answer is that institutions in periods of decline come to take on certain characteristics,” the report on the survey said. “One such characteristic is to become increasingly focused internally instead of externally. Thinking and decision-making begin with maintenance questions.”

The report ranked in four tiers the values that the laity look for in pastors.

The first tier, the most admired traits, included being caring, cooperative and honest. They were identified by more than 40% of those responding.

The second tier of values--listed by 16% to 23% of those responding--included being spiritual, broad-minded and inspiring, and the third tier, listed by 8% to 12%, included such traits as loyalty, self control and intelligence.

The final tier, listed by 3% or fewer, included such traits as competence, independence, courage, maturity, fair-mindedness, straightforwardness, ambition and being forward-looking.

The report quoted an unnamed bishop who, on seeing the results, “expressed concern that some values so crucial to a missional stance by the church (forward-looking, imaginative) did so poorly among laity.”

“The concern in all of this is that just at a time when the church needs missional leadership, marked by the characteristics included in the lower tier of the survey, laity are registering high marks for those kinds of characteristics generally associated with a maintenance style of operation,” the report concluded.