Church Survey Questions

Church Survey Questions — Don't Reinvent the Wheel

If you've found this page because you are looking for church survey questions to use in writing your own church survey, we would advise you to pause and reconsider your approach. There are already great church survey instruments out there that you can use. Why reinvent the wheel? The truth is you are better off with an objective third party instrument anyway. Why? Here are a couple reasons:

• When you write your own survey questions you introduce your own bias into the mix. It's impossible to stay 100% objective when creating an assessment instrument for your own use.
• Sound church survey questions are created from a research base that determines which concepts should be included in the instrument. If you write your own questions, how do you know that you're not leaving out key areas of measurement or overemphasizing others?
• A well-designed survey will have been created through the grid of survey science and psychology to ensure that the questions are worded for clarity and universal understanding across the participant base.

Click to download our Free Guide to Church Assessment.

Church Survey Questions — Features to Look For

The church survey questions you find through a third party can vary dramatically in their quality. Here are some guidelines in what to look for as you select an established church survey instrument:

• Based on Research: Is there a solid research base on which the survey instrument was built and do you agree with the basic tenets of the research findings?
• Proven Track Record: Are there testimonials or references of previous users that talk about having a positive experience with the survey instrument?
• Anonymous Participation: This is crucial. If the assessment does not allow for the participants to remain anonymous, the feedback is tainted. You will never get genuinely candid feedback if the participant's identity is compromised.
• Population Sample: This is also crucial. The data collection guidelines for the instrument you select should push for a minimum 15% sample of the survey population (preferably in the 25% range). The participants should not be selected (this skews the sample). A truly random sample is ideal, but difficult to administer. In most cases, an open invitation for all parties to participate will give you a reasonable population sample (assuming you get at least 15%).
• Web-based: This is not essential but adds great convenience to the process. In addition to the convenience to the participants, a web-based survey instrument will save you and your team a lot of tabulation work. If the surveys are completed on paper, someone has to take on the time- intensive data entry project of inputting and tabulating the responses (data entry also introduces the possibility of key-entry errors). A web-based instrument circumvents the data entry process and typically tabulates the results for you.

To learn more about using established church survey questions, click here.