I recently made an informal survey of progressive Christians and their experiences at church. I made the survey using Google Forms and posted it on r/openchristian, a subreddit for progressive Christians that is particularly oriented towards LGBTQ+ inclusion. Over the course of 4 days, 79 people completed the survey.

In this summary, I use “progressive” as shorthand for churches that ordain women and LGBTQ+ folks. I use “conservative” as shorthand for churches that don’t do both. Some churches do one but not the other, as shown in the second graph.

A summary of the survey responses is below.

Only half of the respondents go to a progressive church

The answers to the question, “Is your church affirming of LGBTQ+ members/ministers and women ministers?” surprised me, because only half (as a reminder, of people found on an LGBTQ+ affirming Christian forum) answered yes. A more specific breakdown of the respondents’ church teachings is below.

# of respondent churches with the applicable teaching

What their churches do well

The question “What do you like about your church?” was set to free form responses because I had no idea to expect. Once I noticed trends, I put responses into the below buckets. Because I received more answers from attendees of progressive churches, the bar chart indicates the responses as a proportion of total responses for the progressive and conservative church groups.

Members of progressive churches rated sense of community, progressive beliefs/LGBTQ+ inclusion, a welcoming culture, and worship highly. Conservative church members also rated community and worship highly, with slightly more mentions of strong preaching. Fewer members of conservative churches characterized their church as welcoming, and none of them credited the church with being progressive.

“The affirming nature. We have really come a long way toward making everyone that walks in the door feel like they are also a loved child of God.” A member of a progressive church describing their church’s strengths

What they wish their churches did differently

(correction: it’s the % that note the category as something their church should do better. I’ll fix the image when I go back to work tomorrow!)

For the question, “What do you wish your church was better at?” there was almost no overlap. Every single member of a conservative church who responded to this question noted that they wished their church was more progressive, and many named LGBTQ+ inclusion and women’s ordination as particular wishes for their church.

I’d love to see more progressive policies (women speakers, LGBTQ+ affirming, etc.). I also would like to see a few more disability friendly practices. My church, and churches in general, also need to be better at having programmes for women who aren’t married, or who don’t have children/couples without kids. After a certain age, all the small groups tend to be “married couples” or about “moms” and if you aren’t married, or married without kids, you get lost. An answer to “What do you wish your church did better?” from a member of a conservative church

For members of progressive churches, the biggest wishes were for better preaching, more young members, and better community outreach. Some responses to this question are below.

“Text-based sermons instead of topical” “Often seems the leaders are more rooted in secular social justice priorities than in the gospel.”

“Getting the message out that we aren’t the stereotypical “evangelical” church and that our beliefs and expression are different and valid (We, progressive churches, exist! In fact we are considered the “mainline.”). I feel that words like “church” and “Christian” have been stolen by the evangelical and fundamentalist movements to the point that I can’t even use them to self-describe without giving somebody a very wrong impression of my own beliefs.” Responses to “What do you wish your church did better?” from members of progressive churches.

Why do progressives go to conservative churches?

Finally, I asked members of conservative churches to share why they don’t attend churches that are LGBTQ+ affirming and women-led. Of the people who responded, the answers were that they have family in their church, they value their relationship with the church community, they were raised in this church, and they appreciate the preaching.

Another response is below:

I believe it is incredibly important for progressive Christians to work alongside, be friends with, and attend church with conservative Christians. I strive to let them see that not only do I believe in the same God, read the same Bible, and share the same faith as them, my progressiveness is in fact deeply rooted in such. In my belief, it is equally important to minister to them, my conservative friends, as we do the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.

Those who don’t go to church

Six of the people who took the survey did not go to church. The last question was, “if you don’t go to church, what could a church do to make you more inclined to attend?”

Two mentioned that if a progressive church were in their area, they would attend. One said that if the church’s website were clear on LGBTQ+ inclusion, they would be interested. Another respondent gets anxious at church and said they would think about going if the church had a quiet room where they could be alone and listen to the service.

Conclusions

My biggest surprise from this survey was the number of progressive Christians who go to churches that are not LGBTQ+ affirming. My second biggest surprise was that, at least according to the respondents, members of conservative churches didn’t visit and reject progressive churches; for the most part, they active choose to stay in their church, rather than finding the progressive church wanting.

I would love if researchers polled on this topic on a larger scale.