One great way to find out what your congregation and visitors are looking for is to distribute surveys, polling them on what they enjoy about your church, what they feel is lacking, and whatever is on their mind about their church experience in general.
Here are a few tips on crafting church survey questions:
- Keep it short – the longer the list is – the less likely they are to complete it
- Leave space for optional comments – in case they want to bring up a new topic
- Whatever tech you use to distribute the survey – allow them the option to fill it out manually
- Request basic demographic information – age, gender, residence, frequency and number of years to track trends
If your goal is to boost attendance, you should take a two-pronged approach to your surveys: make sure that your regulars are happy so they’ll continue to attend, and also find ways to evolve to make sure that your church is an appealing destination for new visitors.
Here are several sample questions to help you illuminate the path to increased attendance:
- What do you most enjoy about attending services here?
- What, if anything, would you change about attending services here?
- Would you recommend this church to a friend or family member? Why or why not?
- What are some ways that you think we could make our church more welcoming for new visitors?
- Have you attended a different church in the last year? If so, what—if anything—did you enjoy about that church that is different from our church?
When you get the surveys back, keep an eye out for things that your members enjoy about attending services at your church, but be even more aware of what they’re missing.
Do your members wish that they could get a cup of coffee on their way in? Hook it up! It’s a small price to pay for keeping your loyal members happy and maybe even attracting some new ones.
Source: Ministry Tech
Shelby Systems has decades of experience helping churches in all aspects of ministry, for assistance contact one of our Ministry Consultants today!