Congregational Assessment Inventories

Over the past thirty years many hundreds of churches have used Hartford Institute’s congregational inventories to assist in their pastoral search and church planning efforts. 

Our three surveys and reporting forms are user-friendly and reflect the insights from the most recent up-to-date social science research on congregations.  Recently we instituted an online version that also allows for some customization, is less expensive and has a more rapid turnaround time.

We hope you agree with us that these surveys are the best assessment instruments currently available to churches.

Consult our index below for more information about our church inventories:

Which inventory should you use?
Can I see a sample of the Inventories?
Can I see a sample of the final report?
Is there comparison data?
How does the process work?
Is there an online version?
How should we distribute the questionnaires?
Should I survey everyone or draw a sample?
How do we draw a sample?
What is the cost of the inventories?
How do I order inventories?
Can you provide assistance in interpreting the report?

Which inventory should you use?
We have several available:

The Pastoral Search Inventory
This form (with 165 items) focuses on the questions a congregation seeks in its ministerial leadership.  It is designed for congregations looking for a new minister.

The Church Planning Inventory
This instrument (with 210 items) is designed for congregations engaged in a serious in-depth planning process.  This survey is a comprehensive analysis of church programs, including youth & adult education, giving, missions, and evangelism.

The Parish Profile Inventory
This survey (with 110 items) is a shorter version of the other Inventories.  It contains basic items and would be suitable for when a church needs a general overview of congregational dynamics or when the length of the survey is an important issue.

All three Inventory forms include sections dealing with tasks of the church, organizational processes, congregational identity, church facilities, and members’ backgrounds, as well as theological and faith practice characteristics.

All three forms are also available in online-only versions as well. We do not offer a mixed survey where we will provide both online and paper versions and then merge the forms for analysis, however churches can do this themselves with the online version (see below).

Can I see a sample of the Inventories?

The links below will open up pdf format samples of the three inventory forms as they are in print.  To open a pdf document you must have the free Adobe reader installed on your computer.  Download the program at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. 

The Pastoral Search Inventory

The Church Planning Inventory

The Parish Profile Inventory

Sample online survey

Can I see a sample of the final report?

The link below opens a pdf format sample of the final results report.  To open a pdf document you must have the free Adobe reader installed on your computer.  Download the program at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. 

Sample Print Booklet Report

Sample Online Report

Is there comparison data?

Yes! Every so often we take the latest information from the congregations using the Inventories and anonymously enter it into a database from which we run a comparison report.  You can view that report (in pdf format - see above note for the viewer).     

Presently this report summarizes the findings from those churches who used our Inventories between March 2004 and June 2010, totaling 25,053 respondents from 193 churches. A third of these churches are United Church of Christ, 29% are Presbyterian (PCUSA) and 12% are Episcopal. Other Mainline churches make up nine additional percent, including Lutheran (ELCA), American Baptist and United Methodist.  The remaining roughly 14% are from conservative and Evangelical churches including Southern Baptist, Nondenominational and Church of God. Their average size is in the range of 150-200 active attenders. These churches are from thirty-four states with no single state accounting for more than 10% of the sample. The average response rate for these churches was roughly 30%-35%. 

Many of the questions used in our Inventories are quite similar to those in large national studies.  For additional comparative information you might want to check out the findings of four such studies:

• Faith Communities Today  
• Organizing Religious Work Study  
• National Congregations Study
• U.S. Congregational Life Survey  

How does the process work?

Once you decide on the proper inventory for your situation, contact the Hartford Institute office. We offer the inventories in either paper or web versions. We do not offer a mix of the paper and web versions at this time.

Online only version: We have just begun to offer an online version. Contact us and state that you want to do the online only version. We will set up the survey on surveymonkey and send you the web link which you will then distribute to your congregation or post to your website. Let us know how long you want the survey to be open to your membership. Once completed we will close the site and run the report. This service costs $300 in total no matter how many responses you get. If you need paper versions, we will create a pdf of the online version and your church will be responsible for transferring the information from paper copies to the online version.

Paper only version: Contact us to order your blank questionnaires.  Once ordered, the forms will be shipped via UPS within a week.  A set of instructions, a brief questionnaire and a letter of agreement will accompany the shipment.  Please fill out the survey about your church and return it with the completed questionnaires.

Distribute your questionnaires to your membership.  Collect the completed ones and send them to us.  We will tabulate the results, transcribe the comments verbatim, and return two color copies of the findings within 4-6 weeks of receiving all the completed questionnaires into our office. 

If you do the online version, we can return the results within 2 days of ending the survey.

What we send you after the survey:

Along with the basic report of findings for either the online or paper versions, you will receive brief instructions to assist you in interpreting your results and a reporting of average scores from churches who have used the survey for comparative purposes. 

We do not include an interpretive report of the tabulations.  That task is left up to your committee, church and/or local consultant if your congregation chooses to hire one.  

Likewise, we do not generally provide cross-tabulations or correlations for churches.  These require a knowledge of statistics and tests of significance in order to interpret the results which few committees are equipped to do.  As such we found that committees looked at any difference as important when in fact the difference wasn't statistically significant and might have happened by chance, a biased sample, unequal groups or any of a number of other reasons for an observed difference. When we have run comparisons of young and old, male and female, newcomer and old timer, and more and less involved there are actually fewer statistically significant differences than one might imagine.

We do, however, provide the raw data file in tab-delimited or Excel format for a consultant or someone in the church who knows statistics to run the comparisons.  

How should we distribute the paper questionnaires?

Most congregations distribute the questionnaires by mail along with a cover letter and a return envelope already stamped with first class postage.  The cover letter should stress the importance of a high return rate and describe the projected uses of the questionnaire results.  The letter should also include clear instructions telling people how, and by what date, they should return the completed questionnaires to your church.  Some churches ask respondents to put their name on the return envelope but not on the questionnaire.  This allows the church to contact only those who haven’t returned their surveys with a reminder after a week or two. 

Announcements and reminders in bulletins, newsletters, and from the pulpit are very important.  Additionally, to ensure privacy, you may want to stress that Institute personnel will be the only ones opening and viewing the individual survey forms.  Some churches have also found it helpful to telephone or email members in order to increase their return rates. Remember, the accuracy and usefulness of your results is heavily affected by your rate of return. You should allow three to four weeks for persons to return their completed questionnaires. 

Should I survey everyone, just attenders or draw a sample?

We do not encourage churches to survey just their attendees.  Many important findings can be uncovered by allowing less involved members to have their say. 

Larger churches can save money by sampling.  Unless there are reasons why everyone in your church must receive a questionnaire (such as a conflict situation), we suggest that churches larger than 300 members save money by distributing the questionnaire to a sample of members rather than the entire congregation.  This is because the percentage of questionnaires returned affects the accuracy of results much more than the number of questionnaires returned.  Thus the time, energy, and money of large churches are more effectively spent on obtaining a high return rate than on securing a large number of completed questionnaires.

How do we draw a sample?

Drawing a true random sample of your members is a laborious task.  Thus we recommend the following practical and quite acceptable method.  First make a "clean" list of members and active non-members who are over age 15, live in the area, and who are physically capable of filling out the questionnaire.  This can be based on a family address list if it lists each family member.  (Remember, you are sampling individuals, not families).  Flip a coin to determine whether to start with the first or second person on the list.  If the sampling fraction is 3/4, send a questionnaire to the starting person and the next two persons, skip one name, send to the next three, skip one, and so on through the entire list.  Use similar methods for other sampling ratios.

What is the cost of the inventories?

The cost of any online version is $300 in total.

The cost of the paper inventories is as follows:

How do I order inventories?

To order any of these inventories (paper or web version), or for additional information, call (860) 509-9542, email Sheryl Wiggins at swiggins@hartsem.edu or write:

Hartford Seminary, Hartford Institute for Religion Research
77 Sherman Street, Hartford, CT  06105  

Paper Questionnaires are shipped via UPS within seven days following receipt of your order.

This web site also contains numerous resources for interpreting the report and researching the census data and community make-up of your local area. Specifically visit our Congregational Studies section or Research Resources section.

Can you provide assistance in interpreting the report?

Sorry, we have discontinued this service.  

You may also want to read a summary of the research conducted by Adair Lummis titled "What do lay people want in Pastors?"