Plans for Holiday Services Survey of 1,000 Protestant Pastors

2 Methodology  The telephone survey of Protestant pastors was conducted in May 18-25, 2011  The calling list was randomly drawn from a list of all Protestant churches. Up to six calls were made to reach a sampled phone number  Each interview was conducted with the senior pastor, minister or priest of the church called  Responses were weighted to reflect the geographic distribution of Protestant churches

3 Methodology Continued  The completed sample is 1,000 phone interviews  The sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling error does not exceed +3.2%  Margins of error are higher in sub-groups

Survey Responses

5 Even with Christmas and New Year’s on Sunday, the vast majority of pastors still plan on having services on those days. 2% Not sure Q: “Christmas and New Year’s Day both fall on Sunday this year. As a result, does your church plan to have services on the following days?” Among Protestant Pastors

6 The majority of churches plan on having services on both Christmas Day and Christmas Eve but only on New Year’s Day. 2% Not sure Q: “Christmas and New Year’s Day both fall on Sunday this year. As a result, does your church plan to have services on the following days?” Among Protestant Pastors

7 “Christmas and New Year’s Day both fall on Sunday this year. As a result, does your church plan to have services on the following days?” Protestant pastors of churches in the South are least likely to plan on having a service on Christmas Eve (62%) compared to those in the Northeast (80%), Midwest (75%), and West (73%). Protestant pastors of churches located in the suburbs are most likely to plan on having a service on Christmas Eve (79%) compared to churches in a large city (66%), small city (70%), and rural area (68%).

8 “Christmas and New Year’s Day both fall on Sunday this year. As a result, does your church plan to have services on the following days?” continued Protestant pastors of churches with attendance between 0-49 are least likely to plan on having a service on Christmas Eve (58%) compared to those with attendance of (67%), (74%), and 250+ (79%). Pastors with a graduate degree are more likely than those with at most a Bachelor’s degree to plan on having a service on Christmas Eve (79% to 52%).

9 “Christmas and New Year’s Day both fall on Sunday this year. As a result, does your church plan to have services on the following days?” continued Pastors identifying themselves as Mainline are more likely to plan on having a service on Christmas Eve compared to those identifying themselves as Evangelical (87% to 70%). Full-time (71%) and part-time (74%) pastors are more likely to plan on having a Christmas Eve service compared to bi-vocational or volunteer (53%) pastors.

Plans for Holiday Services Survey of 1,000 Protestant Pastors