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The Church-Wide Opportunity Improvement Survey is unlike any church assessment instrument you have ever seen. And it gives lots of valuable information that every church organization needs before attempting any kind of change. It measures the improvement opportunity of a church in 21 ministry areas:
- Change--How well does our church accept and embrace change?
- Church Planning--How effective/efficient is our church planning process at planning for change/the future?
- Activities/Programs--Do the church activities/programs meet the needs of those they are designed for?
- Discipleship--How effective is our discipleship process in providing spiritual growth opportunities to our congregation?
- Lay Leadership--How effective/efficient is our lay-leadership process?
- Facilities Use--Do our present facilities meet the needs of the congregation?/
- Music--How effective/efficient is the music process for preparing our membership and visitors for the worship service?
- Organization--How well does our church accept and embrace change?
- Outreach--How effective is our outreach process in reaching out to the non-believer and/or un-churched in our community?
- Pastoral Care--How well do the pastors focus on the needs of the membership?
- Pastoral Leadership--How well does the senior pastor or the co-pastors do the job of leading the church?
- Relatedness--How well does the congregation relate to diverse people groups, different races, different economic groups, etc.?
- Small Groups--How effective/efficient is the small group life and process?
- Worship Service--How effective/efficient is the total worship experience at the main weekly worship event?
- Youth--How effective/efficient is the process designed to reach and minister to the youth in the church and community?
- Capital Fund Raising--Is the timing appropriate for a capital fund raising campaign?
- Sunday School/Sabbath School--How effective/efficient is the Sunday/Sabbath School or Bible Teaching program at our church?
- Marketing--How well is our church's marketing strategy?
- Stewardship--How effective/efficient is our tithing/giving to the church and our management of the resources God has entrusted to us?
- Technology--How effective are we at using the newest technology at our church?
- Women's Ministry/Women's Issues--How is the participation of women viewed at our church and how well do we minister to this group?
Three (3) questions are asked in each area, and each question is answered three times. That's right, three times. Each question must be evaluated by each member responding to the survey and answered in three different ways;
Is - Should Be - Priority:
- How good "is" the church today in the area being questioned?
- How good do you feel the church "should be" three to five years from now in that area?
- Now you have identified where the church is, and where you feel it should be, based on the needs of your church, as you see them, what is the "priority" for the church to move from the "is" to the "should be" in the area being questioned?
This gives a means of measuring the willingness of a church to change in any given area and a means of prioritizing the fifteen areas on the basis of openness to change. In other words, we can get improvement indices on each question, on each of the fifteen areas, and on the church as a whole.
Here's how a sample question looks:
1. To what extent is your church active in reaching out to others in your community?
These answers would mean the individual feels the church does not have much of an outreach program (Is=2), but that it is very important to have one (Should Be=7), and changing this ministry area to where it should be is very important (Priority=7).
Based on a comprehensive Church-Wide Improvement Opportunity Survey, CIM will be able to identify the key issues of your church and start a data base for future study. The next steps would probably be cause analysis and a plan for change.
Key Benefits
- The Church-Wide Improvement Opportunity Survey gets the corporate opinion, not just the opinion of the leadership groups.
- The Church-Wide Improvement Opportunity Survey provides a vehicle for the average church member to express himself or herself, which serves as an emotional release that lowers the level of displeasure in a church.
- The Church-Wide Improvement Opportunity Survey provides instant "buy-in" to the resulting long-range plan, if it is guided by the results of the assessment.
