By Christie Latona

There comes a time in the life of every church when it needs to assess its potential and opportunities for increasing mission effectiveness. (The mission of every United Methodist church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.) While there are many churches that create and distribute surveys to garner member's feedback on everything from worship times/style to ministries, those can simply feed a membership mentality (click here for an article that describes the difference between a membership vs. a discipleship mentality.)

Try one or more of these tools for help in constructing a shared picture of current reality so that God's preferred future might become clearer.

1. Life Cycle Assessment. Sometimes the simplest place to start is to gain a shared understanding of where your church is on the development life cycle. What priority drives your decision making? Vision/mission, relationships, programs or management?
2. Self-Audit. This form is adapted from one used by church consultants to get a sense of trends on key statistics and information on areas that can limit growth (like parking!). While often used prior to interviewing as a part of an assessment and recommendation process and/or in preparation for an onsite consultation, many leadership teams and governing boards find value in doing a self-audit or bi-annually. If you need help interpreting this audit, contact the Office of Congregational Development.
3. Readiness 360. This online survey allows everyone in your congregation to participate in providing feedback on four key areas that are correlated to healthy disciple making DNA. In addition to a standard multiple choice question set, the survey allows a congregation to ask two open-ended questions. The Baltimore-Washington Conference makes this tool available for all its congregations at no charge. Contact the Office of Congregational Development to get your congregation's account set up.
4. Mission Insite. This tool allows congregations to gain valuable demographic data about the community that surrounds their church. This information can be used to help shape ministry for those who are not yet involved with the congregation and can help equip congregation leaders to better understand their mission field. Click here to learn more. Click here to understand how Readiness 360 and Mission Insite can work together.
5. Congregational Studies. There are a couple of congregational studies that are designed to help a church discern what is most faithful next steps might be. Each are a standalone process.
6. Does Your Church Have a Prayer? is part bible-study, part organizational assessment, part small group work that is packaged with a six-week sermon series and small group study. 
   
   
   What have you found to be useful in evaluating your congregation's God-given potential?