George Barna - Christian Women Today

7/29/2019 George Barna - Christian Women Today

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hristian Women Today, Part 1 of 4: What Women Think of Faith,eadership and Their Role in the Church tten by George Barna

men are the backbone of U.S. Christian churches. They are more likely than men to comprise the ranks of churchgoers, volunteers and Suool teachers. Yet, how do women feel about occupying these roles at their church? Do they feel valued? Undervalued? Are they satisfied wr level of involvement and their opportunity for leadership?

his article, the first of four parts, the team at Barna Group looks at the perceptions of Christian women in America, beginning with their view

dership, church and their place in it.

isfied? adly speaking, the research depicts two types of experiences among Christian women. The first represents the majority of Christian womenress a great deal of satisfaction with the church they attend when it comes to leadership opportunities. Three quarters say they are makingst of their gifts and potential (73%) and a similar proportion feel they are doing meaningful ministry (72%). More than hal f say they havestantial influence in their church (59%) and a slight majority expect their influence to increase (55%).

, the study also shows another experience for many other women. These women are frustrated by their lack of opportunities at church and understood and undervalued by their church leaders. About three out of 10 churchgoing women (31%) say they are resigned to low expecten it comes to church. One fifth feel under-utilized (20%). One sixth say their opportunities at church are limited by their gender (16%). Rouge out of every eight women feel under-appreciated by their church (13%) and one out of nine believe they are taken for granted (11%). Althose represent small percentages, given that about 70 million Americans qualify as churched adult women, this amounts to mil lions of women

S. today who feel discouraged by their experiences in churches.

aders? ommon stereotype is that women are not as likely as men to be leaders. But the research shows Christian women are equally likely as Chrn to consider themselves to be leaders. One out of every three Christian women use the term “leader” to describe themselves—the sameportion as among men.

a positive note, many women leaders believe the church is a receptive place for their leadership. Women who self-identify as leaders most that role fulfilled in congregational settings (52%). Others say they serve as leaders on the job (31%), at home (29%), in their community ( school setting (18%), or at a non-profit organization (13%).

slightly more common for women to self-identify as a servant, a label embraced by half of today’s Christian women. Self -described servany embody this role by praying for other people (46%), encouraging others (24%), helping the needy (24%), sharing the gospe l (23%), volun%), donating money (17%), and giving time to a non-profit (9%).

en so, most Christian women feel the pangs of guilt and are motivated to do more with their life. Three quarters of women say they feel theyd should be doing more to serve God (73%).

pport? e research also looked at how women perceive various aspects of their leadership opportunities within churches. The study h ighlighted a mof perceptions among Christian women:

While most women (84%) say their church is either totally open to or mostly open to women fulfilling their leadership potential in their

church, about one quarter of women (24%) still feel the role of pastor is not open to women.

More than three quarters of women (78%) disagree that the Bible prohibits them from being leaders in the church.

Most women say they are fully supported in pursuing leadership roles by the men in their lives, including their senior pastors (68%) an

husbands (63%). They are least likely to perceive this support from other male officers in their church (54%).

More than one third of women (37%) say their church would have more effective ministry if women were given more opportunities to l

Only half of women (47%) say the male leaders in their church are willing to change the rules and structures to give women more lead

opportunities.

Reflecting some of the challenges women experience in churches, 41% of women say they have more opportunities to lead outside o

church than within their church.

Overall, 82% of women say they can tell by its actions that their church values the leadership of women as much as it values the lead

of men.

mments vid Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, says this study helps to give context to the ongoing debate regarding women’s roles and the Chrismmunity. “It’s tempting to take the examples of those closest to us as representative of all Christian women today. Yet, the research shows tenormous range of experiences for women in today’s churches, from those who are very satisfied to those who feel as if the church is one ost welcoming places for them to be.”

naman also cautions that the research “should not be equated to customer service research, where church leaders try to keep their most

mmitted constituents—women—happy. Instead, the study should be an invitation to better understand how both women and men work togetm a more Christ-like community.”

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hristian Women Today, Part 2 of 4: What Women Want

ugust 17, 2012 – ―Family-oriented.‖ That, in a nutshell, is how most of today‘s Christian women see themselves. Ine second of a four- part series, Barna Group examines the lifestyle, priorities, values and commitments of today‘s

ristian women.

lf-Styled Spirituality

spirituality were Olympic gymnastics, most Christian women would give their personal faith top scores. Three quarChristian women say they are mature in their faith (73%). The good feelings continue when it comes to ongoing sp

owth, as mor e than one third (36%) of churchgoing women say they are ―completely‖ satisfied with their personal

ritual development, and an additional 42% say they are ―mostly‖ satisfied. Only one quarter (23%) of these womenmit they are less than fully satisfied with their spiritual growth.

hen it comes to their personal relationship with God, only 1% confess they are ―usually not too close‖ or feel ―extre

tant from God.‖ The vast majority of women claim to have an ―extremely close‖ (38%) or a ―pretty close‖ (43%)

ationship with God. An additional 17% feel more ambivalent, saying they are ―sometimes close and other times nose.‖ Perhaps this perception of intimacy with God is driven by the fact that slightly more than half (52%) of the wo

rveyed say they take time every day to intentionally evaluate the quality of their relationship with God.

mily Over Faith ough women project a calm, confident exterior when it comes to their faith, the research suggests their spiritual live

ely their most important source of identity. That role is taken up by the strong priority Christian women place on fa

e preeminence of family was most overt for Christian women when it came to naming the highest priority in their lore than half (53%) say their highest priority in life is family. By contrast, only one third as many women (16%) rat

th as their top priority, which is less than the cumulative total of women who say their health (9%), career performa

%) or comfortable lifestyle (5%) are top on their list of life objectives.

spite the characterization of women as intricately connected to their peers, only 3% of Christian women say their fr

e their top priority, equal to those who place finances (2%) and leisure (1%) at the top.

hat a Woman Calls Herself omen‘s sense of identity very closely follows their priorities, with 62% of women saying their most important role ias a mother or parent. Jesus came next: 13% of Christian women believe their most important role in life is as a foll

Christ. In third place is their role as wife (11%).



ny other roles women identify with came in at similarly low rankings and far below that of a parent, including that omployee or executive (3%), that of church member (2%) and that of friend or neighbor (2%). American citizen, teach

d caregiver all rank with one percent each.

oals in Life rhaps not surprisingly given where they place their identity, Christian women also point to family-related objective

eir most important goal in life. Raising their children well is the highest goal for Christian women (36%). While, roue quarter of Christian women identify faith-oriented goals as most important (26%).

ough women consider themselves family-driven, their marriages may be suffering from a lack of intentionality: onl

Christian women say their most important goal in life is to enhance their relationship with their significant other.

arriage comes in below several other goals, including health (6%), career (5%), lifestyle (4%), personal growth (4%orality (4%) and financial objectives (3%). Only goals related to personal appearance, relationships outside the hom

vel come in lower than marital goals.

omen Like Their Lives aybe one of the reasons women often fail to mention marriage-related goals is that they are generally quite satisfiedeir marriages. While Christian women claim high levels of satisfaction in many facets of their life, they are most sat

th their marriages (59%) followed by their parenting (51%). Although these findings cannot entirely explain women

k of marital goals, it does suggest many Christian women find some of their deepest contentment in life from their arriage.

tisfaction levels drop somewhat when it comes to areas of life outside the home — particularly as they relate to servi

ople in the community (26% are completely satisfied with this area of their life) and to using their gifts and abilities

1% are completely satisfied). Personal spiritual development, career, relationships outside the family and involveme

urch are all areas of life with which women are modestly satisfied.



ajor Influencers ost people recognize they are being influenced by outside forces — and in many cases, such influence is welcome, evvited. And then, of course, there are influences people would rather not admit affect them at all. Such is the case wit

men surveyed. Christian women are more than willing to admit they are influenced by their faith — particularly throading the Bible and listening to sermons, with 75% of those surveyed saying the Bible has influenced them ―a lot,‖ a% saying the same about sermons. Most women also readily admit their husbands have an impact on their actions a

cisions, with 63% of married women saying their husbands influence them a lot.

wever, after those top three influencers, women are much more reticent to admit they are swayed by outside voices

rticularly when it comes to friends and media. Only 10% of Christian women say their friends have a lot of impact eir decision-making (though 51% say their friends do have ―some‖ influence on them). An even lower number of w

ll allow that the media has any influence on them, with only 5% admitting the media influences them a lot, 25% say

e media influences them some and a striking 70% claiming the media has ―little‖ influence over their decision maki



hat it Means e president of Barna Group, David Kinnaman, offers this commentary on the research. ―Some may interpret this

earch as a false choice: can women be asked to choose between their role as a parent and that of their faith? They sotherhood as core to what it means to disciple and be discipled. Others may conclude this study shows too many wo

ve created an 'idol' of their family, perhaps at the expense of their devotion to Christ.

etween these extremes, perhaps these stats should help both moms and dads to consider the favorable — and potenti

favorable — ways parenting has affected their faith journey. And church leaders, too, must wrestle with key question

s raising children and doing it well become central to the definition of being a good Christian? What happens to a mho struggles in her role as a parent or to a woman who wants to but cannot become (or never becomes) a parent? Ar

ese women somehow perceived as less Christian by fellow believers? Could a grace-based theology of faith in Chrisdermined if many Christians embrace a parallel works-based theology when it comes to their parenting? For churchders and influencers the research underscores the complexity and importance of the God-given role of motherhood

llions of women."

hen asked to explain why so few women say they are influenced by media, Kinnaman adds: ―In many ways, women

f-perception revealed in this study seems to be aspirational. Women want to be influenced by the Bible, but they reje idea of being heavily affected by the media. So these aspirations may be reflected in the numbers. Still, the way w

scribe themselves reveals something: they seem to know how they want to be perceived by others. Other findings in

rvey reflect this pattern: women seem to be laying claim to a life they want, even if it‘s not always current reality.‖

bout the Research

e study on which this report is based included telephone surveys with 603 women who are ages 18 or older who deemselves as Christians and have attended a Christian church service within the past six months (excluding holiday

vices or special events). These Christian women were randomly chosen from the 48 continental states. The maximuargin of sampling error for a sample of that size is estimated to be within +/- 4.1 percentage points at the 95% confid

vel. There are other forms of survey error that cannot be statistically estimated.

bout Barna Group rna Group (which includes its research division, the Barna Research Group) is a private, non-partisan, for-profit

ganization under the umbrella of the Issachar Companies. It conducts primary research, produces media resources

rtaining to moral and spiritual development, and works with a variety of organizations to facilitate the healthy mora

ritual growth of leaders, children, families, individuals and Christian ministries.

cated in Ventura, California, Barna Group has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultu

nds related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notificatioe release of each update on the latest research findings from Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at t

rna website (www.barna.org). Other research-based resources are also available through this website.

Barna Group 2012.



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hristian Women Today, Part 3 of 4: Women Give Themselves anmotional and Spiritual Check-up ulfilled Faith noted in Part 2 of Barna’s State of Women series, women give their personal spirituality high marks. The vast majority say they are eitherremely close (38%) or pretty close (43%) to God and say they evaluate their relationship with God on a daily basis (52%).

ch confidence continues when women were asked to describe the characteristics of their faith. Women, almost without exception, assign poibutes to their spiritual life. Nearly three quarters (73%) of women say their faith is characterized by joy. The same can be said for spiritual

edom. Three out of four women say they experience a lot (72%) of spiritual freedom in their faith. The numbers dip slightly when it comes toing fulfillment in their faith—67% of women say they feel a lot of fulfillment in terms of their spiritual life.

en it comes to negative characteristics, Christian women are much less likely to admit to any of them. In fact, the numbers are almost exactersed as those for the positive attributes. Only 3% of women claim to feel “a lot” of fear, doubt or confusion in their faith. Only about one quamen claim to feel some” of these negative emotions in connection with their faith.

Different Kind of Sin urches have long taught the seven deadly sins or modern interpretations of them: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. For wose traditional sins do not seem to be a problem; they claim instead much more “modern” struggles. In fact, when asked what they struggle wmen most often point to disorganization (50%) and inefficiency (42%).

for the traditional sins, women are least likely to admit to lust (8%). And, against common stereotypes, women also say they rarely battle jeaenvy—less than one in eight women (13%) admit to feeling envious often or sometimes. When it comes to other negative behaviors and attout one third (36%) admit to feeling anger, one quarter say they struggle with selfishness (25%), one in five say they are prone to excessive

uing (19%) and just over one-sixth (16%) say they can be arrogant.

men’s Biggest Hurts most people, it is fairly easy to come up with the single biggest disappointment they have faced in life. And, at least when it comes to wom

vies may have it right. Most Christian women point to relationships as being the cause of their most significant heartache.

e permanent loss of a relationship—the death of a loved one—was highest on women’s list of disappointments. Nearly one third (29%) say meone they loved was the hardest thing they have faced. For one in five women, their family or children have caused the most hurt in their l%). An additional one in 11 women (9%) point to a divorce or a bad marriage as the biggest disappointment in their life.

e numbers fall significantly after that. About one in twenty women say their major disappointments have come from health. Then came otherational, financial and moral disappointments. Career and faith came in last on the l ist, with only one in fifty women pointing to either as the cr biggest life disappointment.

at it Means en asked about this research, president of Barna Group, David Kinnaman, points to possible explanations for women’s self -perceptions. “Sstudy’s findings are encouraging. To think half of women claim to evaluate their relationship with God consistently—that shows women wou

be very intentional in their faith pursuits. On the other hand, are some of these self-assessments believable? Do so few women really struggr, doubt and confusion? Do they really think disorganization is their biggest sin? Or are women reluctant to admit their s hortcomings—even

onymous survey?”

hat’s the case, Kinnaman says the real question then is why? “Why would women be motivated to put themselves in such a positive light even promised complete privacy in a telephone survey? When there is a strong sense that social desirability is affecting the results, it is helpfudress possible underlying reasons. For example, perhaps Christian women are reluctant to admit their struggles because they might experieame and guilt by giving a more honest response. Perhaps women need to learn to have grace and compassion for themselves and one ano

naman adds that another explanation is that “most Christians have created a comfortable bubble that surrounds their faith. Some of Georgena’s wor k on the barriers to spiritual transformation and the 10 stops on the spiritual journey show that most Christians in the nation—womuded—feel they are much further along in their spiritual development process than is probably realistic. This current study shows that most

men tend to offer one-dimensional, emotionally guarded responses about their spirituality. This is not because they are trying to be misleadiy simply don’t know what is missing. Christians need better tools for self -assessment, especially through the lens of the Bible. Guiding peopre accurate understanding of their spirituality is a tough task, but one that is sorely needed to help today’s stuck-in-neutral Christian.”

hristian Women Today, Part 4 of 4: Who Will Women Vote For?

ugust 28, 2012 – With the nation‘s next presidential election just over two months away, many observers are focuse

w various constituencies are likely to vote. In the final installment of the series on women of faith, Barna Group

amines the political perspectives and preferences of today‘s Christian women.

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he Largest Voting Bloc ing four categories to distinguish the nation‘s electorate, the Barna study looks at voter preferences, political

rspectives and candidate choices. The four voter segments include: (1) Christian, churchgoing women; (2) Christianurchgoing men; (3) non-churchgoing women and (4) non-churchgoing men. In other words, these four segments

present the full scope of the electorate in four buckets of voters, comparing men and women across religiously activ

active lines.

e findings from these four categories reveal the importance of Christian, churchgoing women to the outcome of thi

l‘s contest. Christian women are among the most likely to intend to vote. Overall, 79% of Christian women say thefinitely plan to vote, compared to 76% of churchgoing men. It‘s worth noting that the motivation gap between Chris

en and other men (60%) is actually smaller than that between Christian women and other women (52%).

the four voter segments analyzed, Barna Group projects that churchgoing Christian women will comprise the largeare of voters on November 6. In all, 30% of ballots are likely to be cast by churchgoing women, 22% by other wom

% by churchgoing men and 28% by other men. Representing such a high percentage of the population and with suc

ong likelihood to vote, Christian women are a particularly important group for politicians and pundits to pay attenti

s fall.

he Issues They Care About st because Christian women are likely to vote, doesn‘t mean they are particularly pleased with the political process

ys. In fact, three quarters of Christian women (74%) report a strong sense of discontentment with the political

vironment. Typically this sentiment signals how engaged a group of people are in the political process and oftennslates into above-average voter turnout.

hen it comes to the political issues Christian women care about, they are not necessarily what one might expect. Wild stereotypes suggest Christian women care most about matters of family (i.e., gay marriage, abortion, education),

ese are actually quite low on their list of priorities. In fact, abortion and gay marriage are second and third to lastspectively), with only environmental policy being lower.

tead, fiscal matters are at the top of women‘s list— healthcare, taxes and employment policies are the top three. Th

me matters of safety: terrorism, dependence on oil and wars in the Middle East.

n the issues, Christian women compare to other groups in the following ways:

hey are the segment of voters most likely to point to education, healthcare and employment policies as having ―a lo

fluence on how they plan to vote.

Compared to other women they are particularly unmotivated by environmental policies.



Christian men are comparatively more motivated than Christian women by the issue of dependence on foreign oil.

Christian men and Christian women are more likely than other non-churchgoing segments to focus on abortion and g

arriage. However, these issues are rated equally important by both Christian men and Christian women — near the bo

the list of hot-button issues for both sexes.

Christian women and other non-churchgoing women are equally likely to find motivation this fall around domesticolence issues.

vid Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, puts these patterns in perspective. ―During harder economic times, moral

ues are less of a priority than the pressure of finances, jobs and survival. Though it has never been accurate thatristian voters only care about two issues — abortion and gay marriage — the influence of issues typically associated w

e ‗Christian right‘ may be more diffused than in previous contests.‖

ho Will They Vote For? hen it comes to the ―horse race,‖ Christian women edge toward the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, over the

cumbent, Barack Obama, but they are more likely to consider voting for President Obama than are Christian men.

mong Christian women, 53% support Romney, with 30% definitely planning to vote for the conservative. For their p

ristian men are much more likely to be in the Republican column (58% total and 34% definite).

nventional political wisdom holds that party affiliations win the day, but women say that‘s not the most important tthem. A candidate‘s stand on political issues is by far the most important (72%), followed by the candidate‘s charac

2%) and the candidate‘s religious faith (27%). After that, other voting factors drop substantially in importance: part

filiation (13%), the candidate‘s education (6%), speaking ability (4%), personality (3%), age (1%), endorsements (1d physical appearance (0.5%).

erestingly, Christian women are slightly less likely than other voters to say the candidate‘s position on issues was a

tical factor. (It is still perceived by these women as their most important decision point, but less so than for other vo

hat is notable is that Christian women are most likely to mention the candidate‘s character and faith, even more so t

ristian men.



bout the Research e study on which this report is based included online surveys with 1,005 adults who were randomly chosen from thntinental states. Those individuals were screened for their likelihood of voting in the 2012 General Election in Nove

sed on four factors. The filtering process, based on a series of questions related to voter registration, interest in the

ction, perceived importance of this year‘s race, past voting history, and voting intent in 2012, produced a base of 64

ely voters. The maximum margin of sampling error for a sample of that size is estimated to be within +/-4.0 percentints at the 95% confidence level. There are other forms of survey error that cannot be statistically estimated. The stu

s conducted between March 14 and 21, 2012.

this research, Christian women and Christian men include those who self-identify as Christian and who have attendurch worship service at least once in the last six months. The study included 234 Christian women who are likely vo

-6.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level).

e ―non-churchgoing segments‖ included inactive Christians, other faith groups and skeptics, but the common

aracteristic is that they are not actively attending a faith community of any type or they are not affiliated withristianity.

keptics‖ are individuals who identify themselves as atheists or agnostics.

bout Barna Group rna Group (which includes its research division, the Barna Research Group) is a private, non-partisan, for-profit

ganization under the umbrella of the Issachar Companies. It conducts primary research, produces media resourcesrtaining to moral and spiritual development, and works with a variety of organizations to facilitate the healthy mora

ritual growth of leaders, children, families, individuals and Christian ministries.

cated in Ventura, California, Barna Group has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultu

nds related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notificatioe release of each update on the latest research findings from Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at t

rna website (www.barna.org). Other research-based resources are also available through this website.

Barna Group 2012.



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Documents

George Barna - Christian Women Today