Test
Quality information
The church world is full of information. The challenge is to find regular, high quality information about the unique health issues your church is facing. The NCD Church Survey is designed to do just this. It has been developed from the most extensive (and ongoing) international research ever conducted into what causes churches to grow. Testing your church’s health regularly enables you to focus valuable time and energy on the areas of church life that will bring about the greatest progress.
Timing
Every church has an annual calendar. Fit the NCD Survey into the time of the year that most suits you. The only important issues in deciding when is ensuring that the people you want to complete the survey are available and that you have sufficient time immediately after the results come out to consider their implications.
Survey Participants
You are looking for up to a maximum of 30 people who fulfill all of the following criteria-
- they have a regular task in the church
- they are in any kind of small group in the church
- the selected group collectively represents the whole church (gender, age, race, etc.)
We strongly suggest completing the survey with all participants at the same sitting. Survey forms sent home are often hard to get back. Once the survey is completed, the results profile is usually available within a fortnight.
On to the 'Understand' stage
Next time 'round
Maintaining Momentum
How often you do the survey depends on how much change is taking place and how much momentum is being generated. There is no firm rule: some churches re-survey every 6 months, others once a year. The purpose of successive surveys is to help you track change and determine whether what you are doing is helping or hindering healthy growth. Too long between surveys makes it hard to work out what actions led to what results. Significant loss of momentum can result.
Evaluating whatever has been going on
The NCD Survey measures the impact on church life of all activity, not just so-called NCD-related activity. This makes repeating the survey regularly important even if you feel you didn't do much with the last survey results. Everything occurring in the life of a church is contributing either to future growth or decline. It’s good to know on a regular basis what is and isn’t helping.
Considerations for NxCD churches during the 'Test' stage
On to the 'Understand' stage
Helpful Tools for the 'Test' stage
3 Color Life Cycle - NCD Survey Workbook
A process for your leadership team download
NCD Survey Instructions
In case you have lost them or would like to read them before ordering your survey. Included in the NCD Survey Workbook above.
The NCD Survey
The survey forms, instructions and other implementation materials more...
Profile Plus Detailed Analysis
The report you will receive that provides detailed information within each of the 8 Quality Characteristic results. more...