The recent Pew religious survey has spawned quite a few articles, or perhaps obituaries, on the LCMS in particular. It shows that we are liberal in homosexuality, abortion, hell, and even belief in God. No doubt the LCMS is not all fine on doctrine, but this survey cannot be extrapolated beyond the data it actually collected.
First off, the respondents self-identify. According to the data collected only 34% attend church weekly. Over half attend only a few times a year or less. You have almost as many lapsed members as those who attend regularly in the data sample.
Who knows if these people who claim to be of the Missouri Synod are actually members of a congregation? Even if they were, perhaps they have been removed and do not know, because they are not connected to the congregation in any real sense. In the 2014 the percentage of LCMS respondants attending weekly was 47%–showing a drastic change.
The inputs determine the outputs of the survey, and the people actually responding certainly skew the data. So when worldly people, who do not honor God’s Word, are asked basic questions, the results should come out exactly as reported: a fair percentage of worldly pagans.
To carry it further, if the respondent does not attend church, hearing the preached Word, of course the reading of Scripture will not be the highest of priorities. But in terms of actual attenders, since “Lutheran” is a particular confession of God’s Word, not a birthright or inheritance, more than the percentage of weekly attenders do read the Bible regularly. That makes sense. But those who avoid the preached Word clearly do not honor it for what it is—and will not do so privately either, since they despise the public preaching of a called minister of the Christ.
To summarize, asking a majority of self-identifying members who do not attend church about their beliefs should report them looking very worldly—because they are! By definition, not hearing or honoring the Word is not being a faithful Christian. It would be like asking high school dropouts about the benefit of education. I would not expect good answers from those who don’t take it seriously in the first place.
Another factor is that this survey was answered online by 67% of respondents, whereas the previous versions of the same survey were all by mail or phone. Those most active online could easily skew a certain direction in age and beliefs, and would offer even less trustworthy data.
Did the respondents even take their time and read the questions carefully? Pew seems to acknowledge this difficulty: “This means that for some survey questions, the results we obtained in previous surveys (using an interviewer-administered mode) cannot be directly compared with the results from the new survey that we conducted using mainly self-administered modes, even if the wording of the questions is identical.”
| Self-Reported Church Affiliation | % Reported Attending Weekly |
| Restorationists | 48 |
| Holiness family | 62 |
| Pentecostals in the evangelical tradition | 54 |
| Presbyterians in the evangelical tradition | 55 |
| Lutherans in the evangelical tradition | 35 |
| nondenominational Protestants in the evangelical tradition | 53 |
| Methodists in the evangelical tradition | 68 |
| Baptists in the evangelical tradition | 47 |
| Baptists in the mainline tradition | 29 |
| Methodists in the mainline tradition | 26 |
| nondenominational Protestants in the mainline tradition | 19 |
| Lutherans in the mainline tradition | 23 |
| Catholics | 29 |
| Latter-day Saints (Mormons) | 69 |
Pew Survey data
What this tells us is that among the people surveyed, the LCMS appears to be more like a mainline church attendance-wise, which is more indicative of church poor discipline and expectations, or perhaps just general ignorance. I have encountered several ELCA members in my own ministry who have heard and are familiar with the Missouri Synod, but not the synod to which their congregation actually belongs and which they regularly attend.
Those people should be made to know that they are not good members of the LCMS, if they are not aware. This requires pastoral care and congregational commitment. To not honor God’s Word and receive the Lord’s Supper regularly is shameful. Scripture determines what is truly Christian, not Christians and certainly not those who think they are Christian, but live much like the world.
In the end, let this be a warning: that disconnecting oneself with the Word and local congregation is dangerous and will lead to heresy, as one cuts oneself off from the means of grace. But the Word actually proclaimed in the pulpits and rooms of LCMS congregations must be our focus and task to purify, not surveys. –ed.
Christian News 