Telephone survey will query church workers about indebtedness
The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod is conducting an in-depth study on the indebtedness of LCMS clergy and church workers and its impact on their lives. The results of this nationwide research will be used in developing potential solutions to this ongoing issue: financial concerns among rostered church workers.
“We want to better serve our church workers,” says Merle Freitag, president of the Lutheran Church Extension Fund, the LCMS organization spearheading the study. “We want to find ways to reduce the financial worries of these servants, so they will have more time to focus on their ministries, families, and future.”
The telephone survey is being conducted by Behavior Research Center of Arizona throughout May and June 2006. Church workers will be randomly selected from the Synod’s more than 20,000 ministers, teachers, and other lay workers. Since the sample is small (1,000 interviews), organizers are asking that selected interviewees participate if called upon to do so.
“The LCMS needs the input and ideas of each and every selected church worker in order to realize the full value of this project,” says Freitag. “All responses are completely confidential and anonymous, and we hope church workers take this unique opportunity to help the LCMS in its planning efforts related to this issue.”
Posted April 28, 2006
