OK, now for the fun of the types of questions you might ask in your congregational poll. In the end you and your colleagues choose what is most useful for you, but I will provide you some samples.
Remember that they should provide information that is useful, constructive, and easy to collate for an overall picture of your congregations. Also, the survey should not be more than 4 or 5 significant questions, maybe even less. You can always do it again if it is successful. I would suggest that you stick to one or at most two main themes around which you ask the questions. There is also an advantage to having a positive, future thrust to your questions.
Let us look at worship first. You might want to begin with a rating question such as, “On a scale of one to ten, ten being highest, how would you rate the level to which your worship experience has challenged and nurtured your spiritual growth in the past year?” (That will be easy to graph)
You might follow it with something like, “Other than the sermon, what parts of the worship experience are most meaningful to you on your faith journey.” Depending on the type of liturgy you conduct, you might need to provide them a brief description of the parts of the liturgy in the letter.
Can you remember the subject matter of a particular sermon that had a significant effect on you and your faith journey?
” Are there external factors such as time of worship, physical place of worship,seating arrangement, banners, style of worship, lay participation, types of music, your advanced preparation, etc. that you think might enhance the spiritual power of the worship experience for you personally?”
“What is one hope that you have for your worship experience over the next couple of years?”
Note that these types of questions not only gather information but also have educational possibilities for those who consider them. If the questions are shared with the congregation, they might generate positive reflections even for those who are not called.
