Anonymized responses from 223 Zambian participants drawn from 19 church denominations. The questionnaire was built in Google Forms and distributed on WhatsApp community groups, Facebook church pages, and other social media platforms targeting Zambian Christians. It covers biblical doctrines, food and health beliefs, life and social values, and perceptions of denominational exclusivity. All 25 Likert-scale items are recorded as full qualitative text responses.
This study was conducted to assess whether belonging to a specific Christian denomination in Zambia matters for salvation and Christian living, given that all denominations profess faith in one God and one Bible. The central research question was: "Do doctrinal differences between Zambian churches produce meaningful differences in beliefs about the Bible, health, diet, social life, and salvation — and does this undermine or support Christian unity?" By collecting views from members of 19 different denominations across all 10 provinces of Zambia, the study aimed to map the landscape of inter-denominational belief variation and examine attitudes toward Christian unity versus doctrinal exclusivity.
Instrument Design: A structured self-administered questionnaire was built using Google Forms. It comprised four sections: (1) ten demographic and church background fields; (2) twenty-five 5-point Likert-scale items covering biblical doctrine, health and dietary beliefs, and social/life values; and (3) four closed-ended categorical items addressing denominational exclusivity and inter-church conflict. The form was designed in plain English and kept to an estimated 10–14-minute completion time.
Distribution: The survey link was shared via WhatsApp church and community groups, Facebook church pages and groups, Twitter/X, and individual referrals across Zambia. Targeted posts were made in denomination-specific groups to ensure broad denominational coverage. Participants could only respond once (Google Form setting enforced). Both province of origin and province of residence at the time of answering were captured to reflect internal migration patterns common in Zambia.
Sampling Strategy: A purposive convenience and snowball sampling approach was used. Participants were asked to share the link with fellow church members and friends in other denominations. Minimum age was 18 years. Only participants currently residing in Zambia and actively affiliated with a Zambian church were included.
Anonymization Protocol: The Google Form was configured to not collect email addresses, phone numbers, or identifying information. No real names were collected. Age was captured in 10-year brackets. Sequential participant IDs (PART_001–PART_223) were assigned post-export with no link to real identities. Data were stored on a password-protected drive accessible only to the research team.
Collection Period & Cleaning: February 2024 – July 2024. Submissions with more than four blank Likert responses were excluded. Duplicate entries (same church + same responses) were removed. The final dataset contains 223 complete, unique responses from participants across all 10 Zambian provinces.
Self-Selection Bias: Respondents who chose to participate may hold stronger or more reflective views about their denomination than the average church member. Distribution via social media favours younger, more educated, and urban participants — this may under-represent older rural congregants, particularly in mainline and African Independent Churches. Social desirability bias is likely on sensitive items such as Q13 (prayer versus medicine), Q17 (traditional healers), and Q23 (witchdoctors), where participants may respond more conservatively than their actual practice. Denominational sample sizes vary considerably, with larger denominations (Catholic, UCZ, SDA, PAOG) more robustly represented than smaller ones. Results should be treated as exploratory and illustrative rather than statistically representative of each denomination's membership in Zambia.
SECTION A – BIBLICAL BELIEFS
SECTION B – HEALTH & DIETARY BELIEFS
SECTION C – LIFE & SOCIAL BELIEFS
SECTION D – DENOMINATIONAL IDENTITY & UNITY (Categorical)
File: Zambia_Church_Denominations_Beliefs_Study_2024_223P.xlsx