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Your church’s needs are often hard to see.

We guide you from the brush to a clearing.

Guessing and anecdotal advice doesn’t guide you forward. Our assessment uses benchmarks from thousands of churches so you can know exactly where the path is for your church.

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In a Nutshell:
    Sign up and complete a brief church questionnaire. Send out our pre-made survey to your congregation. After two weeks, we generate a comprehensive report on your church’s spiritual health. Church members can carry over their results into NextStep for ongoing discipleship.
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“The Next Step Church Assessment provides a necessary perspective to where individuals are growing or stuck within the church you serve. I found this assessment to be a form of prayer, attempting to listen to God where I could invest the most time to help individuals and the church as a whole become who God has made them to be.

Peter Englert, Adult Ministries Director
Browncroft Community Church
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Free & Simple

Other assessments are complex to set up and time-consuming to implement. The Next Step for Church assessment can take you from launch to discovery in as few as three weeks.

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Pack With Confidence

Individual stories won’t tell the full story. Who’s doing well? Who’s secretly struggling? Anonymous, year-over-year evaluation can help you accurately track your church’s spiritual growth.

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Solution-Focused

Not seeing a score on the board, or only seeing problems, can make you feel like you’re stuck. Our assessment helps you identify your church’s biggest wins and gather around a cause so you can celebrate as one big family of God.

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Birds Eye View

Guessing and anecdotal advice won’t move you forward. Our assessment uses benchmarks from thousands of churches so you can know exactly where you’re off-track and where you’re on-target.

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Actionable insights

Raw data from other assessments doesn’t have the depth and breadth to show what counts. Our assessment provides tailored, actionable insights gleaned from over 200 years of American Bible Society’s research history.

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Your 3-Week Mile Markers

Your church is always changing. It’s only 3 steps to learn what those changes mean.

Join The Platform

1 Mile

Create your account, invite collaborators, and tell us a bit about your church so we can best prepare your survey.

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Launch Your Survey

2 Miles

Pick your survey’s start date, share the link with your church, and get statistically viable results in 2 weeks.

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Get Your Results

3 Miles

Uncover the strengths, challenges, growth opportunities, and unique signature of your congregation.

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Field Guide (or FAQs)

We get some great questions from travelers like you, so we’ve compiled them into a handy field guide.

How can I tell if my church needs an assessment?

That’s easy—every church needs one! Our assessment benefits churches regardless of size, denomination, or spiritual health. Data insights can help your church pinpoint strengths and weaknesses, identify areas where members may be struggling, and reveal opportunities for growth.

Will these assessment results really help me be a better church leader?

We’re big fans of the adage, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Every leader is different, and ministry styles vary widely across the board. But one certainty remains: An informed church leader is a better church leader. This assessment will provide the knowledge you need to be confident in your ministry strategy and your congregants will reap the benefits.

Is this assessment really free?

Yes! Offering this assessment free of charge means you can try it risk-free. It also means church leaders across the country have access to in-depth insights capable of revitalizing their congregations.

If you find Next Step for Church valuable—and we’re confident you will—consider paying it forward. Your contribution will help us continue to provide the platform at no cost so churches with limited resources can take the assessment without any financial burden.

How do I get my congregation to participate in the assessment?

We believe you’ll boost participation by involving your congregation at every stage of the process. Explain the assessment and what it’s designed to do. Share your goals for completing the survey and encourage participants to be honest. Finally, reinforce the idea that every voice matters. Their involvement will help you better care for them as their leader.

What if the church health assessment tells me that my church is unhealthy?

Data doesn’t lie. Every church has strengths and weaknesses. Our goal in revealing real—sometimes unflattering—facts about your church’s spiritual health isn’t meant to cause you to question your leadership or worry about your church’s future. Rather, our assessment is designed to equip you with the knowledge you need to help your church flourish.

Research may be our specialty, but helping churches thrive is our passion. No matter your church’s starting point, our experience and resources can set you down the path toward greater spiritual health.

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The future is coming so fast we can’t imagine what’s next.

Your congregation is facing issues they never imagined. Their conversations are more complicated. Their faith is being challenged in different ways. And every day seems to bring a brand new surprise.

‘Normal’ was thrown out the window in 2020 with no sign of return so it’s hard to know whether people are growing in their faith when the baseline has disappeared.

So we concentrated American Bible Society’s 205-year legacy of research excellence and data intelligence to build a specialized assessment custom-fit for church leaders. With it, you can reestablish the baseline, see where your congregation is growing, and where they need help.

Fast forward to next year…

You’re excited. You hum with a renewed sense of calling and confidence. Why? Because your church members are reaching new spiritual heights. You see it in their lives and the assessment data backs it up. On top of everything, the assessment was free.

So take a look, your potential is showing.

John Plake, Ph.D. Chief Innovation Officer
American Bible Society