Figure 2. Frequencies for levels of commitment and current involvement
'YMC
1
Involvement
Summary of Research Question 6 Findings
The analysis performed between the independent variable (youth ministry commitment levels) and the dependent variable (current church involvement) demonstrated that there was a significant degree of association between the two.
Specifically, it was discovered that the measures for involvement were lower than the measures for youth ministry commitment. This relationship, while certainly not causative in any way, did seem to indicate that the degree to which survey participants were committed to their youth ministry during high school did impact in some way their decision to remain involved as young adults. In fact, there was a linear progression of retention: as survey participants moved up the levels of youth ministry commitment, the corresponding rates of retention moved upward. At the highest level of commitment, the Engaged Disciple, students remained involved at significantly high levels through their college years and into young adulthood.
In addition, the data analysis for the entire set of youth ministry commitment levels provided an overall retention rate of 88% for the sampled participants. This retention statistic directly contradicts previous studies and discussions on the issue of retention, which had estimated that churches are losing up to 90% of their graduates after high school.
Evaluation of the Research Design
The research design employed for the current research study was tailored specifically to the goals and outcomes desired for a thorough investigation of the
retention/dropout phenomenon in SBC churches. Given the fact that there was very little precedent research and no comprehensive database to draw upon, the researcher had to
162 create a survey instrument and construct a research design that would assist in obtaining the best data possible for answering the research questions. The researcher learned a great deal about researching church ministries and survey methodologies. The final section of this chapter reflected on the strengths and weaknesses of the research design.
Strengths of the Research Design
The variety of platforms utilized for survey invitation was a definite strength of the research design. Personal contact with the youth pastors, email invitations, and online social networking venues such as Facebook and MySpace resulted in a relatively large sample size in the absence of a database of youth ministry graduates. The total sample size for this study was just shy of 300 respondents and included a variety of ages and backgrounds, which allowed the researcher to perform appropriate statistical analyses and draw conclusions about levels of significance. In particular, Facebook was extremely effective in contacting older graduates with whom the sample churches had lost contact due to geographical displacement or a change in church membership.
Another strength was the use of Survey Monkey to host online surveys. The ability to deliver surveys online was deemed critical since so many twenty-somethings are adept and comfortable in an online setting. Survey Monkey's functionality was extremely helpful in that it hosted the survey, collected the responses, allowed for real- time summary graphs and data, and provided a simple-to-use format for exporting the data into SPSS for the analysis phase.
The creation and utilization of the levels of youth ministry commitment and current church involvement proved to be extremely valuable in assessing retention rates.
Instead of lumping students into a monolithic category, this novel approach to the data
took into account the obvious differences in youth ministry commitment levels in terms of spiritual habits, church attendance, intrinsic perceptions, relational strength, and program involvement. While spiritual growth and development is not an exact science, these nuances will undoubtedly assist future researchers in quantifying and analyzing church retention in a way that is faithful to youth ministry's own objectives.
Weaknesses of the Research Design
Several weaknesses in the research design were retrospectively observed by this researcher. With respect to the structure of the survey, without question the
researcher could have obtained a higher response rate by shifting question 16 to the end of the survey. Most of the survey participants who did not complete the survey stopped at this question and did not continue with the rest of the survey. The researcher has theorized that the participants were not comfortable attaching their name to their responses (anonymity, distrust due to bad experiences with online marketers, etc). In future research efforts, simply moving question 16 to the end and making it optional will result, it is believed, in a greater number of responses.
Undoubtedly, it would have been helpful to increase the sample size and geographical scope of the sample churches. If more churches of different sizes from different regions of the country could have been identified as meeting the dynamic criteria, the results and generalizability of the data would have been strengthened.
Finally, it would have been preferable to obtain a better distribution of survey respondents. The results showed an uneven distribution of survey participants from the twelve sample churches and an uneven distribution of respondents across the levels of youth ministry commitment. The research would have provided a more comprehensive
164 picture if the survey respondents had been distributed evenly among sample churches and if a larger number of Disengaged Prospects and Normative Attenders had been identified and surveyed.
CHAPTER 5