The Southern Baptist resource provider Lifeway has done a survey of how the general public perceives the various denominational labels.
They took nine church traditions–Assemblies of God, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, and nondenominational–and asked respondents if they thought a church with this name might be “for me,” as well as related questions. (Here is the report, and here is a story about it in Christianity Today.)
In general, the majority of Americans had no problem with any of these denominations, except for Pentecostals, with 51% saying that this particular strain of Christianity is “not for me.” The highest acceptability scores were for “nondenominational,” with only 33% ruling those churches out, followed by “Baptist,” with 43% ruling them out.
But a significant percentage of Americans do exclude certain churches because of their denominational affiliation. And that information is especially interesting when broken down demographically.
You can go to the links above to find the results for each tradition. I’m a Lutheran, as are quite a few of you subscribers, so I will report on what the study found about our reputation.
According to the study, 47% of respondents said that “a church with Lutheran in the name is not for them.” That is about the same as for the other denominations, except for Pentecostals, Baptists, and non-denominationals, as noted. Fifteen percent were “unsure” about Lutherans.
Conversely, a bare majority, 51%, have a “favorable impression of Lutheran churches.” Over a quarter of Americans, 26%, say they are “unfamiliar” with them.
Young adults tend not to like us much. Of respondents aged 18-34, 50% said that a Lutheran church would not be “for me” and 35% said that they have an “unfavorable” impression of us. But older adults, 25-49, like us even less, with 52% saying “not for me.” Old people 65 and up tend to like us OK, with only 40% saying “not for me.”
Among Hispanics, 52% say Lutherans are “not for me,” with 37% saying they have an “unfavorable” impression. African Americans, though, are relatively open to Lutherans, with only 40% saying “not for me.”
Respondents with evangelical beliefs don’t like us, with 55% saying “not for me,” while only only 45% of non-evangelicals do.
The well-educated don’t want to be Lutheran, and yet they like us. The majority of respondents with a Bachelor’s degree (51%) or a Graduate Degree (53%) say Lutheranism is “not for me.” And yet 57% of those with a bachelor’s degree and 59% of those with a graduate degree have a “favorable” impression of Lutherans.
Midwesterners, where Lutherans mostly congregate, do like us, at 57% saying they have a “favorable” impression. Southerners, however, not so much, with only 47% being “favorable.”
Non-Christians dislike Lutherans more than they do most of the other categories. Among Non-Christians, 65% consider Lutheranism “not for me,” second only to “Southern Baptists” (66%). Among the religiously unaffiliated, 33% have an “unfavorable” impression.
There is one demographic, though, that seems to be the most open to Lutheranism. Among “Christians who attend a worship service less than once a month,” only 37% say Lutheranism is “not for me.” And only a miniscule 15% say they have an “unfavorable” impression. However, 27% of this group is “unfamiliar” with Lutheranism.
In fact, for these professing but mostly unchurched Christians, of all the other denominational labels, Lutherans were in the top three for the smallest percentage of “not for me’s”: 37%, with Presbyterians at 36% and nondenominationals at 22%. And Lutherans with 15% were second only to the nondenominationals with 10% in the smallest number of “unfavorable” impressions with this group.
What do you make of all of this? How do you account for both the “likes” and the “dislikes”? What might the church learn from this information, both to address the negatives and to take advantage of the positives?
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