Frugal people like to use the phrase, “If it’s free, it’s for me!”
The internet can be a great place to find free resources. You can find free video tutorials to help you do just about anything, download free templates to use for a variety of things, and much, much more.
Free stuff is great in some instances, but many times, you get what you pay for.
This is definitely true in the case of a church survey. As a church leader, you probably know how important it is to get feedback from your congregation from time to time. You may conduct short surveys on very specific topics on occasion, asking things like “What is your preferred time for a Sunday morning service?” or “How likely would you be to attend a mid-week Bible study?” However, conducting a survey to get a good sense of the make-up of your congregation is a different beast altogether. Yes, there are plenty of articles and blogs out there that will give you suggestions on what types of questions to ask, as well as free survey tools you can use, but sometimes using a ready-made church survey, created by experts, is a better way to go—even if it costs you some money. Here’s why:
You Don’t Have to Spend Time Coming Up with Questions
Creating questions for a church survey can take up a good amount of your valuable time if you’re not careful, and even after spending hours coming up with questions (as well as multiple choice options for each question), they may not be the best questions to provide you with the information you actually need or want. On the other hand, when you buy a ready-made survey, like the Church Vitality Survey created by VitalChurch Ministry, you get a church survey with questions that were carefully crafted by church diagnostic experts. The answers to these questions will provide you with valuable insight into your congregation!
The Process Is Managed on Your Behalf
Another benefit of using the church survey from VitalChurch Ministry is that they take care of much of the process. Not only do they create the church survey for you, they send it out to those on your church’s email list and collect the results. They also generate a report following the end of the survey period. All you have to do is provide them with the email list and encourage your congregation to participate in the survey. VitalChurch Ministry even provides you with helpful tips for maximizing participation.
You Get Expert Interpretation of the Results
Perhaps the most valuable part of purchasing a church survey from an organization like VitalChurch Ministry is the follow-up. Not only will you receive a report with your survey results that provides helpful charts and graphs, but you will get a summary analysis of each question. After you’ve had some time to go over the results, you can then schedule a one-hour call with VitalChurch Ministry. During that call, you can ask questions and get valuable suggestions about how to proceed as a church, based on the results of the survey. This alone is well worth the cost of the survey!
