A hurting world may be calling the church for answers, but nobody's picking up the phone. A new study by the Barna Research Group found that contact with a human being could not be made by phone at 40 percent of America's churches. Researchers called 3,764 Protestant churches nationwide. Multiple callbacks - as many as 12 - were made in an effort to reach a person. No person could be reached at 40 percent of the churches called, and almost half of those churches (44 percent) did not even have an answering machine available to take a message. It took researchers an average of 2.1 telephone calls to reach a human being at a Protestant church during regular business hours on weekdays. One-third of the churches answered on the first call, but among all churches that were eventually contacted, one in 10 required at least four calls. Mainline churches were slightly more responsive than were evangelical churches (at 73 percent and 66 percent, respectively, a person answered the church's phone). Accessibility of mainline churches ranged from a person answering the call at 83 percent of Episcopal churches to 66 percent among the American Baptist churches. Among the evangelical churches the greatest accessibility was achieved among Christian & Missionary Alliance (100 percent, based on a small sample) and non-denominational evangelical (80 percent) churches. Black churches had the lowest responsiveness among the various categories of churches. However, there were huge differences in responsiveness among black churches. For instance, a person answered the telephone at some point among only 9 percent of the AME Zion churches called, 28 percent of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) and 32 percent among the AME churches. However, calls were answered at 76 percent of the Missionary Baptist and 71 percent of the National Baptist churches. Charismatic and Pentecostal churches also had substantially below-average response rates: a person answered the phone at just 53 percent of those churches. Independent fundamentalist churches, on the other hand, had among the highest response rates (81 percent). Overall, the denominations that attract the largest numbers of people also had above-average response rates. Those included the Southern Baptist (66 percent), United Methodist (73 percent), Evangelical Lutheran (74 percent), Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (70 percent), Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (65 percent), Episcopal (83 percent), and Assembly of God (62 percent) churches. Getting through to churches is slightly tougher in the West than elsewhere: only 57 percent of the Protestant churches in the West provided a live contact, compared to 60 percent in the Northeast, 61 percent in the South and 62 percent in the Midwest. Interestingly, however, reaching a person on the first call attempt is more likely to occur among churches in the West than among churches elsewhere in the country (37 percent in the West versus 32 percent elsewhere).Church size also made a difference. The larger the church, the more likely a person was to answer the telephone. The research also showed that the larger the church is the more likely it is to answer the phone the first time a person calls: that happened on 70 percent of the calls among churches that have 250 or more adults who attend, compared to 55 percent at churches that attract 100 to 250 adults and just 44 percent of the churches that attract fewer than 100 adults. These statistics suggest a challenge for churches that hope to connect with their surrounding communities. "The exact statistics by denomination or church size are less important than the overall revelation about the inaccessibility of churches," said George Barna, president of the research firm that conducted the study. "In a world where people are extremely busy and are suspicious of the practical value of churches, they are not likely to make three or four calls to a church before they get to speak to a human being. Churches that influence their communities emphasize connections: meaningful personal relationships built upon an attitude of mutual caring and concern. The ability to communicate both personally and on-demand is crucial to fostering trust and continuity in a relationship. If churches really want to help people, they have to be accessible. When we make it difficult for people to get our attention, we send a negative message about the heart of the church while also training them to look elsewhere during their times of need."Barna pointed out that most churches have not exhausted the creative options available for fostering better communications. "Some churches have their calls forwarded to the homes of volunteers who will answer incoming calls on behalf of the church. Some have been hooked up to relatively inexpensive voice messaging systems that are available from the church's telephone service provider. Others have installed inexpensive telephone answering machines to at least allow people to leave messages. There are many creative and inexpensive ways for churches that are presently inaccessible to make connections easier for everyone."The study has a margin of error of plus or minus two percent at the 95 percent confidence level.
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