Thanks to all of you who recently helped out by taking my survey on spiritual growth. I was able to get a good number of surveys completed, but still would love to get more responses. Here’s the link if you know anyone who would like to fill it out: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6FLGQTJ

Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing the initial findings via the blog, starting with this post. I’ll wrap things up by telling you why I fielded the survey in the first place. Stay tuned.

According to the early findings, most of us seem to be suffering from a light switch relationship with God. On. Off. On. Off.

The majority of survey respondents said they were not content with their current spiritual walk.  Sixty-six percent of  those people said they were “On again, off again. There have been times when they felt close to God, and times when He seems very far away.”

Most reported they had the knowledge and support they needed to pursue a deeper relationship with God, and only a few stated they didn’t know where to start  in terms of getting closer to God.

The most common reasons given for not successfully building a relationship with God were staying motivated and struggling with competing priorities. I’m sure in many cases, those can be closely linked.

Nearly half of the people surveyed said they needed a lot of help or all the help they could get in the areas of: Purpose, Wounds & Trials, Prayer, Witnessing

People believe they need the most help in the witnessing department and the least help in worshiping.

So far, the demographics of the responses have skewed slightly towards male, and are highly concentrated in the age range of 25-44. Most reported accepting Christ as a child.

I am still pulling my conclusions together on what I think the results really show. Interested in your thoughts on these results as well. Initially, I find it telling that so many of us (myself included) struggle with sustaining momentum in our walks. My experience over the last few years has played that out very well.

A lot of what I’ve learned about myself and my faith has revealed major drivers that perpetuate the on again off again rhythm that is so easy for me (and I suppose, us) to default to. I think this is an indictment on our typical approach to God, the support we receive from the church, and the negative influence of our culture, among other things. Fodder for future posts, I suppose.  

Next Up: Recommended Reading. What respondents said were the best books to help them walk more closely with God.