United Methodist TV Commercials Shifting Attitudes About Church; First-Time Attendance, Worship Attendance Increasing at Test Churches

NASHVILLE - A new research study shows The United Methodist Church's national television advertising campaign continues to encourage first-time attendance and build positive images of the second-largest U.S. Protestant denomination.

In its annual evaluation of the church's Igniting Ministry campaign, the Barna Research Group of Ventura, Calif., said persons exposed to the United Methodist advertising have a significantly stronger favorable impression of the church than persons who have not seen the church's commercials.

Barna's report concluded that the advertising campaign's messages "appear to be effectively shifting people's attitudes about The United Methodist Church." The report said "the messages being communicated are understood, and better still, are believable and important to the audience."

The denomination is in the fourth year of its $20 million advertising campaign, running national commercials during the Easter, Christmas and back-to-school periods.

Persons who saw the commercials are nearly twice as likely to say United Methodists "are there for people facing personal difficulty" than those who are not exposed to the commercials, the Barna report concluded. Persons who viewed the commercials are also much more likely to say the church helps people in their communities, accepts people from different walks of life and shows care and support for its members.

"This new research shows our advertising is doing what we want it to do-helping people understand The United Methodist Church is a strong option for people looking for meaning in their lives," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, top executive of United Methodist Communications, where the advertising campaign is based.

"The more people know about the church and how it can help them, the more likely they are to choose to visit one of our congregations," Hollon said, echoing the conclusions of the study.

In its ongoing evaluation of the impact of the television advertising campaign, Barna collects data on first-time visitors and weekly worship attendance from 149 United Methodist congregations across the United States. Since 2000, when the campaign began, first-time attendance is up 14 percent at those churches while overall worship attendance has increased by 6 percent.

Those two figures, Hollon said, exceed the four-year goals that were established when the advertising campaign was created in 2000.

Hollon said the Barna research also shows 58 percent of the respondents exposed to the campaign said they were very or somewhat willing to visit a United Methodist Church, with 10 percent being very willing. That is substantially beyond the program's overall four-year goal of 10 percent showing a willingness to visit a United Methodist Church.

Barna's analysis said "awareness of the campaign is excellent - 18 percent, statistically even with the four-year goal of 20 percent. ... The advertising is effectively communicating with those who are either dissatisfied with their current church experience or looking for a church to belong to."

The research involved telephone interviews with 1,202 adults in five United States television markets (Baltimore, Md.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Indianapolis, Ind.; San Antonio, Texas; and Portland, Ore.) and data from the 149 test churches around the country. For test purposes the telephone interviews were conducted with people identified as "seekers," persons in search of spiritual fulfillment, whether unchurched, marginally churched or church attendees.