Church Satisfaction among Rural Minnesota Protestant Lay Leaders

Abstract This paper reports on general church satisfaction among a sample of rural Minnesota Protestant lay leaders. The author examined the relationship between the dependent variable general church satisfaction with eight independent variables divided into three dimensions of church life. Prominent findings indicate that the vitality of churches is associated with higher levels of church satisfaction among the lay leaders. Additionally, older lay leaders reported greater general satisfaction with their church than did younger lay leaders. However, church contentment is not significantly connected to the mere size of the congregation, type of denomination, gender of the lay leader, or status of the pastor. The author concludes that church satisfaction among the lay leaders in this study is closely contingent upon the internal and external robustness of the church.