SURVEY INFORMATION

Eager to help leaders succeed in reaching more people and impacting more lives, we developed a congregational survey that would:

Be short enough that the entire congregation could complete it in under 10 minutes toward the end of worship.
Measure ministry essentials that have significant links to church growth and life changing impact.
Clearly distinguish between growing and declining churches, and between strong and weaker life changing ministries.
Provide leaders with a proven process that leads to high rates of success. As shown in Research Findings, this has happened!

Like most survey developers, we started off believing that we already knew what grows healthy churches, based on our years of active involvement in, and working with, growing and non-growing ministries. After reviewing our experiences and church growth literature, we began with a pool of 51 items that seemed promising. Two years later, it shocked us to learn that most of our original items had no significant relationship to church growth! In other words, most had no external validity. We dropped invalid items, added new ones and continually tested their validity. Few others do this, or report their results if they do.

Our initial survey, however, did measure three essentials that later proved to have strong links to growth, namely, worship, empowerment, and transforming teachings. It also measured two secondary essentials with moderate links to growth, namely, connecting/belonging and serving experiences.

The initial prayer items were dropped because they were not linked to growth. We discovered a new prayer item that clearly distinguishes growing from declining congregations. We later added three new essentials that turned out to have strong links to growth, namely, leadership, purpose and life changing impact.

In summary, the ministry essentials that clearly distinguish between growing and non growing congregations include:

1. Worship: Helpful sermons, emotional experiences, quality music, etc.
2. Leadership: Leaders here are enthusiastic, positive, willing to try new things, etc.
3. Empowerment: People encourage me, I feel safe, I discover and use my gifts, etc.
4. Purpose or mission isfrequently communicated.
5. Transforming teachings: Attending classes, finding teachings helpful, etc.
6. Prayer: This church really shows people how to pray through sermons and classes.
7. Life changing impact. It takes quality in ministry essentials 1 through 6 to grow a strong life-changing ministry.

We originally measured life-changing impact with three items:

Coming to this church is making a positive difference in my life.
This faith community plays a vital role in my spiritual well being.
I am becoming a more joyful person.

The four secondary essentials are:

1. Connecting belonging: Making friends, actively participating, etc.
2. Serving: Experiencing greater energy, doing things “I enjoy and do well.”
3. Small Groups: Discuss topics that help me grow, satisfaction with group.
4. Youth Ed: This church has good child/youth programs.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How do churches survey? Can we mail out the surveys?

We recommend surveying toward the end of worship service. It takes less than 10 minutes and results in a 70-90% completion rate. In contrast, surveys “on line” are completed by 25 to 40 percent of congregants. Mailing out surveys generally results in less than 20% being returned.

Can we survey if we have less than 50 people attending worship?

We find that survey results are not very reliable when fewer than 50 worshippers complete surveys. Smaller churches can increase their chances of growing by clicking on “Curriculum and Books” and downloading for a small fee the chapters describing the specifics of quality worship, leadership, etc, and ways to strengthen them.

How does the Church Life survey compare with other survey programs?

First. We validate survey items. All survey developers begin with items they assume will measure important things. Some also check the reliability of item clusters. Very few, however, take the next critical step, namely, surveying additional churches to evaluate the validity of their assumptions. We use correlations to validate each item’s linkage to church growth and life changing impact. When surveys measure ministry areas that have strong correlations with meaningful outcomes, leaders can make wiser decisions and focus on developing things that clearly make a difference.

Using an un-validated survey produces strange and erroneous findings. One large-scale study of over 2,000 congregations, for example, reported that meaningful worship and empowering leadership had no impact on growth! This defies common wisdom based on years of observation by successful ministers. It also contradicts what we learned from over 155 congregations.

Second, we empower leaders to take the steps necessary for success by providing resource material and phone consultation, rather than traveling to churches to lead people through a series of focus groups and planning sessions. Since we work with the perceptions and experiences of 50 to 1,000 worshippers, we believe that coming to personally observe is not cost-effective. As a result, our survey program is about one-tenth the cost of what churches pay for having a professional travel and spend time with leaders and congregants.

Third, almost every ministry using our survey and successfully practicing three principles has grown, as outlined in our paper, “What Really Grows Life-Changing Churches.” No other survey program we know of can claim this level of success. (See Research Findings for more information).
How long after we survey before we start growing?

It depends on the number of ministry areas that need strengthening, leaders ability to sustain the energy to successfully develop them, and level of resistance among leaders and congregants. It takes one to two years ofstrengthening ministry essentials before churches enjoy a substantial increase in attendance.

How did you identify which churches were growing?

Around 50 percent of churches actually count worship attendance. In those that did not count, we compared the verbal report of the leader contacting us with congregant responses to: “Compared to a year ago, worship attendance has declined, remained about the same, increased.” If we found a discrepancy, we obtained additional attendance information from leaders during the conference call. Identifying which churches clearly have been growing or declining has been relatively easy. Sometimes, it was not clear if a church we placed in the plateaued category might be growing or declining slightly.

What about norms?

Norms are essential. Without norms, leaders do not know which ministry essentials are stronger or weaker than other churches similar to theirs. Without norms, most leaders would be pleased if 80 percent of their congregation checked yes to “I almost always leave worship feeling more uplifted than when I came.” In truth, 80 percent is belowthe national norm and characterizes declining churches.

Our current norms are based on 25,368 surveys from 156 congregations (five denominations). In our report to church leaders, we also compare their survey results with “minimum growth” levels. The minimum growth level represents the quality level that best distinguishes between growing and declining ministries. Typically, the minimum growth levels are one or two points above the national norms, and represent a kind of “tipping point” toward excellence.

Why doesn’t your survey use a multiple-choice format?

A yes-no format often is used to survey groups of people. In a presidential election, for example, voters vote for one candidate or another. Also, clergy and laity find it easier to understand percentages of congregants checking yes, compared with trying to make sense out of values such as 3.4 derived from a five-point scale.

Using a yes-no format has not diminished our survey’s ability to identify ministry areas that clearly distinguish between growing and non-growing churches, and between strong and weaker life changing ministries.

How can we take on a new project when we are already so overwhelmed?

We recommend empowering an action team to carry the major energy for change (see guidelines in the leadership curriculum). Without some person or some group carrying the energy for change, not much will happen.

Do you provide resources to help leaders take effective action?

By clicking on “Curriculum and Books," you can download for a small fee chapters describing which specifics of worship, leadership, etc. have the greatest impact on growth and lives changing. In these chapters, you will also discover proven ways to strengthen these ministry specifics. For example, two specifics of worship that have the greatest life changing impact are: (a) feeling more uplifted than when I came, and (b) feeling an emotional release. Touching people emotionally has a greater healing impact than other aspects of worship.
How do we get started?

Call or email us to discuss your situation, ask questions discuss survey costs and payment
(541-382-7404 or thrivingchurches@bendtel.net).

How much does it cost to survey a congregation, receive a written report and participate in a planning conference call?

If Sunday attendance ranges between 50 and 150: $595 to $780.
If attendance ranges between 150 and 300: $780 to $1,040.
Note: Add $50 for each additional 100 people attending.