Natural Church Development

Natural Church Development

Survey Instructions

1.  Selecting Participants

How many questionnaires should be completed?

The Natural Church Development profiling software is optimized to work with

·  1 or more pastor's questionnaires (yellow) and

·  30 lay people's questionnaires (green)

The Pastor’s Questionnaire

·  If the church has a multiple pastoral staff, it can have all pastors complete the yellow questionnaire and the Institute’s software will build a composite picture.

·  The senior or sole charge pastor of the church should complete the yellow questionnaire in its entirety.

·  Pastors other than the Senior Pastor should only complete pages 2 to 4.

Criteria for Selecting People to Complete the Lay Questionnaire

There are three criteria for selecting lay people to complete the questionnaire:

·  committed to the life of the church

·  actively involved in ministry, preferably performing a regular task

·  a member of a small group/cell group/home group. Small group can mean a Sunday School class.

You should aim to have included a broad cross section of people:

·  women and men

·  varying length of time at the church

·  different age groups

·  leaders of different types of small groups

·  different ministries, including those that are not high profile

2.  Instructions to Participants

Please share the following instructions clearly with the participants before they begin completing the questionnaires.

·  They must complete every question. When they reach the end of the questionnaire they should check each page carefully to ensure that no questions have been missed. The only exception is if the participant is not in a small group, they should not answer the questions specifically related to small groups.

·  If a participant is unsure of an answer, they should make a "best guess" rather than leaving a blank response.

·  All answers must be made by marking in the middle of the boxes. Marks must not be placed on the lines between boxes or outside boxes. This makes processing the questionnaires much easier.

·  Place only one mark in a box. Double or triple marking, while evidence of enthusiasm for or against elements of church life, does not change the profile’s outcome and makes processing more difficult.

·  No explanations or comments are to be written anywhere on the questionnaires. These do not add to the profile and can only jeopardize the participant’s anonymity.

3. Returning Completed Questionnaires

The questionnaires should be returned to the church office and when all are in send the forms to:

Dan Riemenschneider

Missionary Church, Inc

P.O. Box 9127

Fort Wayne, IN 46899-9127