Why should your church ask for feedback from your congregation? The simple answer is that asking for feedback allows you to better serve your church members. How will you know whether you’re meeting your members’ needs if you don’t ask about what those needs are?
Distributing an online survey is a great way to collect honest feedback — especially if you make the survey anonymous. By asking the right church congregation survey questions, you can get valuable input from members that can help you boost attendance, engagement, and a sense of community.
Types of church survey questions to ask
The types of church survey questions you should ask depend on what you want to get out of the survey. Are you hoping to increase attendance or trying to get members more involved? Or are you performing market research and looking for general community feedback before starting a church? Ultimately, the questions you include in your survey should provide input that helps you achieve your goals.
If you don’t know where to start, try one of Jotform’s 500-plus premade church forms, including guest questionnaires and prayer request forms. Or, use the suggested questions below to create your own with a free online survey maker.
Church survey questions to gauge overall experience
Your congregation should be passionate about your church’s mission and feel like they’re personally engaged with it — these are the keys to sustained engagement. So it’s a good idea to ask questions about the mission and congregants’ overall satisfaction.
- How well do you understand the mission of the church?
- Do you feel the church is sensitive to the needs of its members?
- On a scale of 1–10, with 1 being “not at all” and 10 being “very,” how satisfied are you as a member of our church?
- What’s one thing we could do to better achieve our mission?
Church survey questions to increase attendance
It’s important to understand why members enjoy attending services at your church and to pinpoint areas for improvement. Ask questions focused on how people feel when they attend and how they’d describe the environment:
- What do you enjoy most about attending services here?
- What is the biggest reason you’re likely to miss church service? (Include options like lack of time, health reasons, etc.)
- Do you feel the church welcomes new members and guests?
- Is there anything we can do to make our church feel more welcoming for new visitors?
- Would you recommend this church to friends or family? Why or why not?
- What three words would you use to describe our church?
- If you’ve attended a different church in the past year, was there anything you enjoyed about that church that’s different from ours?
Church survey questions to build community
Building a tight-knit community is a common goal among churches. If you want to get your congregation more involved in church events and volunteering, try asking these questions:
- Do you feel connected with and supported by your ministry team leader?
- Do you feel like other members of the church and the ministry value your contributions?
- Do you feel like you’re “in the know” about what’s happening at our church?
- Do you receive all the information you need regarding church projects and events?
- What methods of communication do you prefer for receiving updates and news?
- Do you feel the church provides you with opportunities for spiritual growth?
- Have you volunteered in the past year? If not, what’s the biggest reason why? (Include options like lack of time, lack of awareness of volunteering opportunities, etc.)
Other things to consider when creating a church survey
To make your survey as effective as possible, follow these guidelines.
- Keep the survey brief. Issuing a survey with 30-plus questions will likely result in a low response rate. Aim for five to 15 questions for the best completion rate.
- Make sure your questions are clear. If you include rating scales, indicate what the high and low numbers represent so there’s no confusion. For example, “On a scale of 1–10, with 10 being excellent, please rate your experience.”
- Add a space for additional comments. Consider leaving an open comment field at the end of the survey for optional feedback. Some people have a lot to say, so provide them the opportunity to share their thoughts.
- Test your survey on multiple devices. It should work on mobile devices and desktop computers. Depending on what tool you use, you may need to tinker with settings to ensure your survey looks right on any device. Pro tip: Jotform offers mobile-responsive surveys, so you don’t have to worry about formatting for different devices.
Free church management software to help you create and manage surveys
Creating a church congregation survey is easy when you have the right tools. With Jotform, you can choose from hundreds of free church survey templates or create your own survey from scratch within minutes. Along with asking for your congregation’s feedback, you can also use Jotform to create virtually any form you can think of, like donation collection, registration, and sign-up forms. With Jotform Tables, you can collect, manage, and organize data from your forms and surveys with a church customer relationship management (CRM) template.
Jotform gives you access to free church management software. If you want to accomplish even more, you can get a paid plan at a 50 percent discount for your nonprofit church. Easily create surveys and forms and automate data intake and workflows — no coding required.
While it sounds simple, there’s lots to consider when creating church survey questions. Refer to this list of questions and resources when developing your church congregation survey, and you’ll get the responses you need.
Photo by RDNE Stock project
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