Imagine Forum Day ‘Whole-Life Discipleship’ Survey
The Survey:
‘Where are we?’ The Imagine church survey seeks to help you answer this question
in two ways. Firstly, the survey provides an opportunity to hear about people’s
experiences on life’s frontlines, the opportunities and challenges they present for
people’s discipleship. Secondly, the survey provides a snapshot of where the church
currently is by allowing church members the opportunity to honestly feedback their
impressions and perceptions about the church community and how it equips them
for life on the frontline. Often this kind of reflection is not done as a whole
community.
The survey highlights the difference between the messages a leadership may be
trying to impart to their congregation and what is being ‘heard’. It therefore provides
an opportunity to identify areas that are perceived to require greater attention.
What the survey maps is not simply a response to the Sunday content of church
attendance, but an attempt to allow people to reflect on whether they feel
empowered for their discipleship in the lives as a whole.
Most significantly the survey allows for discussion between the congregation and the
church leadership. The results of the survey should not be kept for the consumption
of the leadership alone, but presented at a church meeting or in other forms of
church communication. It is the opportunity for discussion which accompanies the
process that is crucial.
Survey URLs:
Each church has a separate survey. They can be found at the following URLs:
http://tinyurl.com/shenley
http://tinyurl.com/newlifecf
http://tinyurl.com/watlingvalley
http://tinyurl.com/loughton
Paper Surveys:
Download a copy for photocopying from
http://www.licc.org.uk/imagine/resources/forum/
Running the survey
 Please nominate 1 person who will take responsibility for running the survey.
They will need to keep in contact with Ben Care at ben.care@licc.org.uk or
020 7599 9570.
 If possible, please email members to let them know about the survey.
Additionally, please use your normal communication methods to let
members know about it.
 We want to ensure that as many members as possible from a wide crosssection are able to complete the survey. To that end, please ensure that
paper copies are available for people attending the church meeting who do
not have internet access. (Alternatively, you may have the facility to set up
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
a couple of computer terminals that members could access on a Sunday
morning)
Any paper copies will need to be collected & responses entered into the web
survey.
Date for survey completion: Tuesday 1st December
Latest Date for LICC feedback: Monday 11th January
Feedback
LICC will compile a report for you & highlight key themes. After you have received
feedback from LICC, as well as talking about responses as a leadership team, please
ensure that you communicate the findings as widely possible within the
congregation. We are keen to emphasise that the results should be owned by the
congregation as a whole and not just the leadership team.
A Caution
The idea of doing the survey is not to create a huge ‘to-do’ list for leaders so that
were the survey to be repeated all areas would be covered. Indeed, this may be a
harmful response which infantilises the congregation. Rather it seeks to allow
leaders and their churches to communicate well and honestly with one another as
you walk forward together in the challenge of building a community which has
whole-life discipleship.
Outcomes
The outcome is both an awareness of strengths and weaknesses and also a context
for constructive and stimulating discussions of how to build a more robust whole-life
discipling culture. Used in conjunction with the concept of ‘One degree shifts’ it is
possible to generate a series of small steps that will eventually change the culture of
a church. At the same time it can identify where some longer term work needs to be
done.
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