2011 National Church Life Survey feedback

Each church’s Survey results will be

presented in their unique Church

Life Profile and are organised so as

to highlight the church’s vitality

Churches’ vitality is measured

through the 9 Core Qualities of

church life developed by NCLS

Research over 20 years of survey

and analysis of Australian churches

The NCLS model of

church vitality is built

on nine Core Qualities

of church life… and

three Attendance

Measures that are

shaped by them.

2011 National Church Life Survey feedback

The Nine Core Qualities of Church Life

Internal Core Qualities About the inner life of the community of faith

Inspirational Core Qualities About leadership and direction in the church

Outward Core Qualities About how the church focuses beyond itself

An Alive and Growing Faith

Vital and Nurturing Worship

Strong and Growing Belonging

Clear and Owned Vision

Inspiring and Empowering Leadership

Imaginative and Flexible Innovation

Practical and Diverse Service

Willing and Effective Faith-sharing

Intentional and Welcoming Inclusion

Church vitality

Church vitality

9 Core Qualities all contribute to church vitality

An Alive and Growing FaithProvides measures of attenders’ growth in faith, faith commitment, their relationship with God, private devotional practices, etc.

Vital and Nurturing Worship Measures attenders experience of the Worship Services. Do they find them inspiring – joyful – challenging – spiritually strengthening and so on?

Strong and Growing BelongingMeasures attenders’ sense of belonging in this church; the levels of friendliness and support they experience; their own level of participation, etc.

The Internal Core Qualities

The Internal Core Qualities focus on the inner life of the community of faith, providing shape and energy to other Core Qualities:

Clear and Owned VisionMeasures attenders’ awareness and commitment to the church’s vision and directions and their perception of how achievable the goals are.

Inspiring and Empowering LeadershipMeasures attenders’ perception of the extent to which a culture of empowering leadership is in the church and their levels of participation in it

Imaginative and Flexible InnovationMeasures attenders’ openness to new ways and their perception of this

church’s openness to new things.

The Inspirational Core Qualities

These qualities relate to leadership and direction. They are the major catalysts for churches to move forward.

Practical and Diverse ServiceMeasures the help attenders give to others, and their level of involvement in the church’s welfare programs and community service organisations

Willing and Effective Faith-sharingMeasures the willingness of attenders to share their faith, be involved in evangelistic programs and to invite people to come to this church

Intentional and Welcoming InclusionMeasure the willingness of attenders to seek out and welcome new arrivals and to follow up those they see drifting away from church life.

The Outward Core Qualities

These qualities are about how churches focus beyond themselves by reaching out to others.

Young adult retention – measures the extent to which this church retains its young adults.

Newcomers – measures the proportion of attenders who are newcomers to this church or even newcomers to church life.

Attendance change – reports attendance change at this church and records Inflow and Outflow.

Attendance Measures – an outcome of church vitality

Core Qualities are linked to outcomes…

The key measures of a church’s Core Qualities are placed in the context of those for all participating churches throughout Australia and is scored from 1 to 10 where 5 is the score for most churches.

Summary Scores – an overview of results

The inside back cover of

your Church Life Profile

shows how NCLS converts a

church’s survey results into

a Summary Score. This

score is then used to show

the church’s relative strength

in each of the nine Core

Qualities and how the

church has grown or

declined in these qualities

over time …

Summary Scores – an overview of results

… These Summary Scores

are then presented

graphically to show each

church their ‘Circle of

Strengths’ and their

Change over Time chart so

the church can

immediately begin to

contemplate some ‘broad

brush’ planning.