Church Health Survey Options
There are several options to choose from in selecting a tool to evaluate your church's health. All of them can be helpful for determining the health of a church. In my opinion, three of the better ones are included in the following list:
Natural Church Development Survey (NCD) (https://ncdchurchsurvey.org/)
Churches from around the world use the NCD Survey to do a health checkup. It is a reliable and valid tool that takes a snapshot of eight different church health characteristics. They are as follows:
Empowering Leadership
Passionate Spirituality
Inspiring Worship
Effective Structures
Holistic Small Groups
Gift-oriented Ministry
Need-oriented Evangelism
Loving Relationships
The EFCA Church Health Survey from the Evangelical Free Church of America (https://nextstepresources.com/product/the-efca-church-health-survey/)
This is a simple pencil and paper inventory that evaluates church health using the following characteristics:
Centrality of God's Word
Passionate Spirituality
Fruitful Evangelism
Spirit-filled Worship
Great Commission Driven
Church Planting
Leadership Multiplication
Stewardship of Resources
Loving Relationships
Intentional Disciple-making
The Church Health Assessment Tool (CHAT) from Leadership Transformations Inc.
(https://www.leadershiptransformations.org/church-health/)
The foundation of CHAT is found in the book, Becoming a Healthy Church written by Stephen A. Macchia. In that book, nearly 2,000 churches were surveyed to see what sets apart thriving and productive congregations. CHAT researches the following church health characteristics:
God's Empowering Presence
God-exalting Worship
Spiritual Disciplines
Learning and Growing In Community
A Commitment to Loving
Servant Leadership Development
Caring Relationships
An Outward Focus
Wise Administration and
Networking with the Body of Christ
Accountability
Stewardship and Generosity
Church health evaluating tools work best when they are repeated every year and have a dedicated church health team that develops a strategic plan for implementing and helps
coach individual ministries.
(This blog was adapted from an appendix in my new book that will be published soon, Pastor Search Checklist.)
[Photo by Samuel Martins on Unsplash]