Describe your congregation and the decisions leaders face. Makeform creates a church assessment survey with focused scales, comments, ministry follow-ups, and member-needs questions.
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Sample prompts for the survey builder
Choose a prompt, tailor it, or send it to the builder. Each example previews a useful structure.
Audience
Adults who regularly attend the church
Format
Five-minute survey with rating scales and comments
Prompt size
296 chars
Example survey structure
Five-minute survey with rating scales and comments
How often do you attend?
How connected do you feel?
What supports your spiritual growth?
Priorities for next year
Request leader follow-up
Suggested review tags
Congregation health
Ministry feedback
Member needs
Ask about one experience per question. A combined rating cannot show leaders what needs attention.
Step 1
Define
name the decisions and groups in scope
Step 2
Ask
combine focused scales with open comments
Step 3
Review
compare themes by involvement and ministry
Step 4
Respond
share priorities and route requested care
Better listening
Measure one topic at a time, invite context, and separate congregation patterns from individual requests.
Use one response scale for belonging, communication, care, growth, and participation so leaders can compare topics.
Show detailed questions only for ministries people know, attend, or serve in.
Use an optional contact section for pastoral conversations or practical support.
Four useful lenses
Hear about connection, growth, care, access, and the experience each ministry provides.
Ask whether people feel known, form relationships, and can find a meaningful next step.
Explore useful teaching, groups, practices, and service opportunities, with room for other needs.
Measure welcome, access, communication, usefulness, support, and one improvement for relevant ministries.
Learn whether people understand decisions and know where to find information, prayer, or help.
Assessment workflow
Start with what leaders will review, then keep every section focused on that purpose.
List the decisions results should inform: investment, ministry improvements, member support, or communication.
Name the campuses, services, groups, languages, ministries, and assessment cadence in scope.
Split double questions, define scale endpoints, and collect identity only for requested follow-up.
Assign theme review, care follow-up, discussion dates, and congregation updates.
Choose the right listening format
Use an assessment for a baseline, a pulse for one timely issue, and a conversation for depth.
Field guide
Use these six sections as a checklist, then remove questions leaders will not review.
Context
Context can explain different experiences. Ask only for categories that matter to the review.
Belonging
Ask whether people feel known, have reliable relationships, and know a next step.
Growth
Separate access from impact because each barrier suggests a different action.
Ministries
Select ministries first, then ask a consistent set about chosen areas only.
Leadership
Ask about timely information, questions, major decisions, and channels people use.
Needs & follow-up
End with needs and an explicit contact choice. Collect details only for requested follow-up.
Related tools
Pair the assessment with focused feedback, membership, volunteer, guest, and donation forms already available in Makeform.
Create a recurring member survey for involvement, benefits, priorities, and renewal signals.
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Open toolCollect membership details, involvement interests, and next-step information.
Open toolLearn how guests found the church and what would help them take a next step.
Open toolTurn interest into structured ministry preferences, availability, and contact details.
Open toolBuild a separate giving form rather than mixing donations into an assessment response.
Open toolFAQ
Practical answers for pastors, elders, ministry directors, and leadership teams planning a congregation-wide assessment.
A church assessment survey gathers member and attender views on belonging, growth, ministries, communication, care, and practical support. Comparable scales reveal patterns, while optional comments add context.
Include connection, belonging, growth, ministry experience, communication, care, participation barriers, priorities, and open comments. Add optional contact for requested support. Connect every question to a decision or follow-up.
Keep an annual assessment focused with consistent scales, conditional ministry sections, and optional comments. Use a separate survey when leaders need detailed feedback on one program.
Not by default. Put contact details in an optional section for requested pastoral conversation, practical support, or follow-up. Explain who receives requests and avoid unneeded personal details.
First ask which ministries a person has attended, used, or served in. Then show the same focused measures for each relevant ministry, such as access, welcome, communication, support, and usefulness. Keep a separate open comment for ministry-specific ideas and do not treat unfamiliar respondents as negative ratings.
Review scaled patterns alongside written comments, note where experiences differ by service or involvement, and distinguish congregation-wide themes from individual requests. Choose a short list of priorities, assign an owner and review date, route requested care promptly, and tell the congregation what leaders heard and what they plan to explore or change.
Yes. Makeform offers unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect your church assessment survey without a response cap. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge.
Yes. Add a campus or service question, then use conditional sections when locations have different ministries or communication channels. Keep a shared core of health questions for comparison, and add only the location-specific follow-ups leaders will actually review.
Listen with a survey built for your congregation.
