UPDATE: March, 2010
This site has been in existence since 2006. Below we have compiled information posted to the survey and observed trends:
Total number of respondents since 2006: 343
Number of Calvary Chapel Churches reported on: 44 (in 20 states and 2 countries)
63% of the respondents have served in a ministry position within their church
Percentage of responses reporting a problem with the senior pastor: 68%
Percentage of responses reporting issue with assistant pastor: 6%
Percentage of responses reporting issue with an elder: 5%
Percentage of responses reporting issue with ministry leader: 5%
Percentage of responses reporting issue with a person listed as “other”: 16%
The following problems are observed among Calvary Pastoral leadership by respondents:
Abuse of Authority: 35.6%
Humility Problem: 14.0%
Integrity Problem: 13.7%
No Problem: 10.8%
Mishandling of Scripture: 9.6%
Among reponses in “other” ministries and with other ministry leaders, Men’s Ministry and Women’s Ministry responses report similar significant trends in the areas of spiritual abuse, integrity problem, humility problem, mishandling of scripture (in that order).
85% of respondents felt the problems they observed were significant enough to follow the steps for resolution given in Matthew 18.
Of those respondents who approached leaders about issues:
76.4% felt the leader did not listen to their concern.
55.1% felt the leader did not understand their concern.
83% did not think the leader demonstrated openness toward their concern.
Of those leaders who were approached by respondents, respondents report that leaders:
36.7% accused the respondent of fault
29.2% were not willing to admit fault
10.8% offered no response to the issue
9% concluded is was all a misunderstanding
5.5% admitted fault but did not repent
4.4% admitted and repented of fault
4.4% agreed to think about it.
88.3% of respondents did not think that the above leader’s response was appropriate
67.3% of respondents report direct knowledge of the above leader being approached by others regarding the same problem they report.
98% of respondents felt the problem they approached the leader about was biblically relevant and 82% used scripture to approach the leader. 44.9% of respondents felt that the leader did not think their concern was biblically relevant and in 68.8% of the cases report the leader did not use scripture in answer to their concern.
88.6% of the respondents felt the issue has not been resolved to their satisfaction
77.8% of respondents no longer attend the Calvary Chapel where they experienced the problem.
61% no longer attend any Calvary Chapel.
84.3% of respondents will not recommend the Calvary where they experienced problems to others
Analysis: The ccsurveys website has seen the fewest repondents to it in the past two years. This is due to several factors. There have been fewer highly-publicized incidents among Calvary Chapels in recent years, sending overall concern “below the radar.” Also, links to the ccsurveys.com website have gradually severed over time as other sources and blogs “move on,” and no effort has been made recently to publicize the site. However, the most recent responses to the survey tend to uphold the above observations, with spiritual abuse, integrity and humility problems among Calvary Chapel leaders being the foremost among concerns.
It was orignally intended that the website would send a regular report to Calvary Chapel Outreach Fellowship, the affiliating body for CC pastors. The reporting feature has not materialized, however emails have been sent to CCOF from time-to time with reporting information such as you see above, and to report specific incidents as requested by repsondents. We have never solicited nor received reponses from CCOF when these were sent.