How Do You Evaluate Your Sunday Church Services?

A number of years back I started a system of evaluating all the details of our Sunday services.  There is so much going on Sunday mornings: parking, greeters, ushers, the coffee shop, sound, lighting, media, the worship team, worship songs, communion, announcements, offering, message, altar call, introductions, transitions, facility maintenance, prayer, discipleship, classes.. and the list goes on.

In an effort to keep track and grow in service to our congregation, I developed a simple 10 question survey that I emailed out weekly to 50 people in our congregation. I used the automated online service SurveyMonkey.com (it is free if you only ask 10 questions).

The group that received the emails included elders, pastors, support staff, musicians, tech people and leaders in the congregation.  They would get an email Sunday morning on their smart phone. I wanted to get constructive feedback from mature Christians so we could improve and do a great job.

SurveyMonkey’s automated system would tabulate the evaluations and comments. Then we would review the results in our staff meetings and take the needed actions.

Here are the 10 questions:

1. How did you find your parking and pre-service experience?

2. How was ushering and greeting this morning?

3. How was your musical worship experience today?

4. How was the worship team and leader? Stage presence, passion, communication?

5. How was the overall sound level & quality? Volume, mix?

6. How was the media (video, lyrics, etc.) announcements and offering time?

7. Did this mornings message speak to you? Did it encourage or challenge you?

8. How was the Pastor’s delivery?

9. How was your altar and post-service experience (friendliness)?

10. What was your overall impression of church today?

After each question there would be a place to indicate an evaluation and also leave a comment.

This simple evaluation system really helped identify problem areas and bring our Sunday gatherings to a higher level.

One note of caution: I learned to control the release of the weekly survey information so that it was only used for positive and not negative ends. Not everyone is ready for blunt feedback.

Question: How are you evaluating your Sunday services? What questions do you ask and how do you address problem areas?

Check out my Mark’s new book.. “Leading Worship ~ Notes from a Grand Adventure’ available in Kindle or Soft Cover Editions.  This is a great gift for the musician or worshipper in your life.