Hello, My Name Is ‘Former Evangelical.’ It Is Nice To Meet You!

hello-my-name-isSeveral months ago I posted an article titled, “Attention All Former Evangelicals” on Steadfast Lutherans. In this article I announced the need for former Evangelicals who ‘have’ or ‘are’ journeying into Confessional Lutheran thought.  The need was for more participants to provide feedback for a Major Applied Research Project that I am working on at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.  I am happy to report that I just recently concluded my first survey in the research process with the wonderful help of 307 total participants.

The feedback that I received from the first quantitative survey was extremely interesting and helpful in describing the journey of American Evangelicals into Confessional Lutheran thought.  The bulleted information below is a collective profile of an average former Evangelical.  In other words, the profile represents the collective voice of the 307 participants who have or are journeying into Lutheranism.

Before beginning my journey into Lutheran thought, I attended more than one American Evangelical Church.

Around 50% of my fellow former Evangelicals have backgrounds in the Baptist denomination and/or Non-denominational churches.

About half of my fellow former Evangelical friends spent 15-30 years within Evangelicalism.

My friends and I have been influenced by 3.8 different theological movements such as: revivalism, pietism, dispensationalism, fundamentalism, and/or the church growth movement.

About half of my fellow former Evangelicals were engaged to the Lutheran church for 1-4 years (i.e., the journey into Confessional Lutheranism took 1-4 years)

The highest linguistic confusion for me in becoming Lutheran was with familiar words having a different emphasis. 

Finally, there was a definite shift in where I acquired knowledge.  There was a change in the books that I read, the teachers that I listened to, and so forth.

To learn more about the quantitative results from this 1st survey you can explore the links below.

  • Comprehensive Quantitative Survey Results:  CLICK HERE
  • Overview of Quantitative Survey Results in a Facebook Format:  CLICK HERE
  • Raw Quantitative Survey Data:  CLICK HERE 

Last week I was also privileged to visit with Rev. Jonathan Fisk of Worldview Everlasting about the results of the first quantitative survey.  The actual interview begins at 2:53.

 

 

Finally, I could also use your help.  If you are a former American Evangelical journeying into Confessional Lutheran thought, or if you know of anyone that would fit this description, I have two more surveys for this research project.  These two surveys focus on gathering qualitative data, the data that shows the motives behind the statistics and helps to answer the question, “why?”  The survey URL addresses are listed below.

Becoming Lutheran Survey #2 (Qualitative)
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/qualitative-second

Becoming Lutheran Survey #3  (Advice)
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/becominglutheranadvice

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Richard

 

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