If you are a pastor or a church leader who is looking for new ways to engage with the community, it might be time for a church assessment survey. This type of survey will help you get the answers to key church evaluation questions, such as...
- How engaging the church services are for members?
- What can be done to improve the ministry?
- Are visitors feeling engaged?
- How do members feel about the children's ministry?
- Are the Bible studies conducted by the church capturing the interests of those who attend?
- Is the church healthy?
- And much more.
In this church assessment survey guide, we'll show you how to craft the perfect questions to get the answers you need to improve your ministry. We'll also provide a series of church evaluation survey questions you can use as a starting point for your own questionnaire.
Table Contents
- Why Church, Evaluation Survey Questions Are Important
- Optimizing Church Evaluation Survey Questions to Fit the Cause
- Church Assessment Survey Questions to Help Boost Attendance
- Church Evaluation Survey Questions to Help Trim Spending
- Survey Questions for Churches That Want to Expand
Why Church, Evaluation Survey Questions Are Important
People often join a congregation when they are seeking spiritual growth within a church. However, they also want to feel connected to the church and its mission. Church evaluation questions not only help to measure the health of your church but also help you learn more about your congregation, so you will know if the church is living up to the expectations of the community.
It can also connect you with churchgoers on a personal level and you can find out their wants and needs, then work on fulfilling them. In addition, church evaluation survey questions make everyone feel special while making the church more inviting and welcoming. When you ask people church assessment survey questions, it lets them know you care about what they think and feel. They also feel like they have a voice in the ministry.
Optimizing Church Evaluation Survey Questions to Fit the Cause
Deciding on the right church assessment survey questions for members requires an understanding of what you're trying to accomplish. For instance, you may want more churchgoers. You could be looking to get people more involved with the community, or wish to raise funds for certain reasons. In any case, here are some helpful tips to consider when putting together your church evaluation survey questions.
Use a Variety of Common Languages Used in the Area
No matter where your church is located, there is likely diversity of ethnic groups with people who don’t speak English well. Providing your survey in different languages takes a personalized approach that your native members will really appreciate. Besides that, it makes them feel special to know you would go out of your way just for them to participate. However, if you are providing your survey online, make sure you include the link to Google Translate or another translator tool.
Keep Your Church Survey Short and Simple
Nobody wants to spend a lot of time answering a lengthy list of questions, especially if the questions are hard to understand or take a lot of thought. That’s why it’s imperative your survey contains a few simple — but important — questions respondents can breeze right through and answer off the top of their heads.
Don’t Force Participants To Choose Between a Few Possible Answers That May Not Be Right
If you use multiple-choice questions with checkboxes, add an “other” option and a text field with enough space for participants to provide their answers. This is a problem found on many church evaluation surveys, but it’s even worse with digital questionnaires.
On paper surveys, the participant can simply skip it, while digital surveys may require an answer before you can move on to the next question. This can lead to false survey results. Here’s an example:
Which of last week’s sermons did you enjoy the most?
□ Pastor Johnson’s sermon on creation.
□ Pastor Steven’s Discipleship.
□ Reverend Phillip’s The Days of Noah.
□ I enjoyed all equally.
□ I didn’t enjoy any of them.
This church evaluation survey question may look like it provides a comprehensive set of options. But, what if someone enjoyed another sermon that you forgot to mention? That’s why you should always consider adding an “other” checkbox like this...
□ Other _______________________________
Or, in the case of an online survey, allow the participant to bypass the questions they don’t know how to answer.
Close-Ended Questions
While you can use open fields, most of the questions you’ll ask in a survey are close-ended. With these church evaluation question types, the data is helpful. They also help keep participants focused. Too many open-ended questions can be time-consuming and can lead to unhelpful and meandering responses.
Likert Scale Surveys
Likert scale surveys are among the most popular survey formats. It focuses on opinions and attitudes. Rather than asking participants to choose from a list of potential answers or asking yes/no questions, it encourages respondents to specify how much they agree or how satisfied they are with certain statements. For example, a question on a Likert scale might include:
How satisfied are you with the coffee at church?
□ Very unsatisfied
□ Unsatisfied
□ No opinion
□ Satisfied
□ Very satisfied
The Likert scale is popular because these surveys allow you to draw quantitative data that’s extremely easy to analyze. The “no opinion” value allows respondents to remain neutral in their opinions, which eliminates the forced answer response.
Semantic Differential Questions
This type of church assessment survey question helps to measure feelings or attitudes. While they are similar to Likert-style church survey questions, they avoid bias. For example, if you are interested in learning how your Sunday school classes are perceived, you can use something like this on a Likert scale:
The Sunday school classes at the church are helpful.
□ Agree
□ Strongly agree
□ No opinion
□ Strongly disagree
□ Disagree
The reader decides how to define “helpful,” which they must base their response on.
A semantic differential question gets more concise attitudes and would be framed as follows.
Please rate the Church’s Sunday school classes:
Relaxed ੦ ੦ ੦ ੦ ੦ Regimented
Social ੦ ੦ ੦ ੦ ੦ Formal
Short ੦ ੦ ੦ ੦ ੦ Long
Informative ੦ ੦ ੦ ੦ ੦ Shallow
Using this questioning style allows participants to express their opinions of a concept more completely. Where the Likert scale only allows respondents to communicate their agreement level, the semantic differential encourages a deeper understanding of their attitudes.
Multiple-Choice Questions
With multiple-choice church assessment survey questions, you can shape the answers using predetermined options for recipients to choose from. The answers can even include “yes/no” responses (dichotomous), or a variety of answers. For example,
How do you prefer to give to the church?
□ Cash
□ Check
□ Website
□ Recurring payments
□ Mobile app
Multiple-choice questions make for quick surveys since they are easy on respondents, and you can easily compile and analyze the data. But without the “Other” option with a text field, you won’t know if they prefer another choice.
Dichotomous Questions
Dichotomous questions are a subset of multiple-choice questions that allows the participant to choose between a simple either/or response such as yes/no, true/false, or agree/disagree. For example,
I wish communion was given more often.
□ Agree
□ Disagree
Church assessment surveys with dichotomous questions are simple to score, but it doesn’t give a lot of usable data. For instance, you would be able to tell from the question above that the respondent would like to have communion more often, but you would never know how often.
Church Assessment Survey Questions to Help Boost Attendance
If you want to increase attendance, first ensure your regulars are satisfied so they will continue attending. Also, look for ways to evolve your church so that it appeals to new visitors.
Here are some questions that can help brighten the path for increased attendance:
- How can we make our church more welcoming and inviting for new visitors?
- Is there anything you would change about attending church services?
- Would you recommend our church to family or friends? Why or why not?
- What do you find most enjoyable about attending our services?
- Have you attended another church in the past year? If so, was there anything different about that church you enjoyed more?
When these church evaluation surveys are returned, look for things your members like about attending your church services. But take note of what responses are missing. Would your visitors or members like to get a small welcome gift when they enter? It’s a small price for keeping loyal members happy and attracting some new members as well.
Church Evaluation Survey Questions to Help Trim Spending
A healthy budget is a good sign of a growing church. Churches can always spend money on facilities, ministries or just charitable giving. But without a good budget, you may be spending more money than you are getting through donations. Therefore, you may need to cut some programs.
Here are some questions to help you decide where you could make cuts:
- Which of our services do you usually attend?
- Which of our services do you least attend?
- Which of our amenities (free coffee, church barbecue, mission trips, etc.) do you most enjoy?
- Which ministries (list upcoming ministries) are you least likely to participate in?
- Which of our outreach programs (list outreach programs) would you be interested in volunteering for?
By determining which ministries and services are the most popular, you can focus on where your resources and spending should go to gain the most returns.
Survey Questions for Churches That Want to Expand
Surveying the congregation is a very important part of your church's planting process. You’re in good company if your church is looking to expand to new locations.
Here are some church assessment survey questions to ask if your ministry is looking to expand:
- Do you avoid religious services if they are too crowded?
- Have you recommended family or friends in the area to our church? If so, where are they located?
- How far is our church from your location?
- Have you ever considered attending an online church?
These questions will help determine if crowding is an issue and if live streaming church services might be a good option. It also will help determine how far people are willing to travel to attend your services.
No matter which survey questions you choose to go with, remember to keep your survey short and simple. This way, you will get a lot more respondents and get the information you need to make better decisions.
Every Church Survey Sample You Could Ever Use
Church surveys are valuable for every church. The feedback you get from these church survey questions provide valuable insights. Unfortunately, building the church survey questions takes time, which you are short on. That’s why we built Word Document templates for every church survey you could ever use. All you need to do is download the 18 printable church survey templates, which won’t cost you a thing!
