Surveys in the Church (anonymous)

[seeker2122]

I would like your opinions on this. I've been thinking about proposing our church to hand out these survey sheets so members
can simply "check mark" the answers that most applies. This way, it is completely anonymous and you can't trace it to someone
via their handwriting as they won't write anything but only put check marks or circles around the answers.

I was thinking this would be a great way to get an idea of what members are thinking, what they need, what they want, what they
don't want, what they might have complaints about but too afraid to say it to anyone etc.

Sample questions could be like:

1. What is your current spiritual life health rating (1 being non-existent, 10 being I'm one with Jesus! Circle answer): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2. Are you satisfied with sermons? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3. What would you like the church to improve more on (check all that apply): _prayer _bible study _fellowship _praise _missions _welcoming ...etc.
4. Are you currently struggling with this church? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5. Do you need more shepherding or personal care? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
6. Do you want to serve in the church (any area): _prayer _bible study _fellowship _praise _missions _welcoming _admin _small group etc.
and so on and so forth. I'd make maybe 20 questions total.

They can drop it off in a box and we'd have no idea whose identities wrote which survey so it's completely safe and anonymous so people
can be free to answer honestly.

What do you think? Is this appropriate for churches or is this method too secular?

 

[tampasteve]

I think it is a good idea. Personally I would change the 1-10 to be 1-5.

 

[Paidiske]

I've done surveys in churches before. Something like SurveyMonkey is a convenient online option, as well.

I don't think it's too secular; it's often hard to get representative feedback from a diverse congregation, and good leaders will want to know and respond to what people are thinking/feeling.

 

[The Liturgist]

Surveys are good, but some of the questions you propose @seeker2122 I think are problematic. For example, how can someone gauge their own spiritual health? They might be suffering as a result of spiritual delusion. Also, St. Silouan the Athonite warned that the two thoughts every Christian should avoid are thinking of themselves as personally holy, or conversely thinking of themselves as being without hope of salvation, for the former is presumptuous and leads to pride and dangerous spiritual delusion, and the latter is a state of despair which contradicts the principle of God’s omniscience.

Nonetheless I think there are things we can and should ask the congregation. One thing might be to routinely survey things like how loved or loving does the congregation feel, or do members feel isolated from each other, or are the sermons easy to understand and appropriately Christocentric.

One could also do surveys to determine the actual level of catechesis of the congregation, for example, making sure the congregation is able to comprehend the basics of Nicene Trinitarian theology. This is important to assess because poorly catechized people can fall victims to psuedo-Christian cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons.

 

[seeker2122]

Thank you guys! I will definitely see if I can get my church to do one!