The River - Tier 3 Survey

General Questions

Instructions: Please complete this questionnaire after asking God to lead you in your responses.

There are several parts to this survey:

>Part 1: Questions in this section are general questions covering a wide variety of key topics.
>Part 2 gives survey participants an opportunity to evaluate the various ministries of the church. Church leaders provide the list of ministries.
>Part 3 consists of three open-ended questions in which you can say what you would like to see "preserved," "avoided," and "achieved" in your church's ministry.

The survey should take about 30 minutes to complete and will help the VitalChurch Assessment Team to better understand your church as well as provide insight into future opportunities and direction. Your help by taking the time to fill out this questionnaire is greatly appreciated!

A response to every question that has an * is required. A few questions will allow for more than one answer.

All your responses are confidential. VitalChurch never allows others to see or use the resulting spreadsheet generated by this survey.

It is not possible to pause and, at a later time, complete the survey. It is important to complete the survey at one sitting.
1.What is the year of your birth? (year only)(Required.)
2.How many years have you been attending THIS church?(Required.)
3.Are you a Partner of this church, a Regular attender or a Visitor?(Required.)
4.What is your gender?(Required.)
5.What is your current relational status?(Required.)
6.How often do you attend worship services at this church?(Required.)
7.What is your primary occupational status?(Required.)
8.What is your highest educational level completed?(Required.)
9.Yearly household income:
10.How many years have you been a Christian?(Required.)
11.Which worship service do you attend most often?(Required.)
12.What was your status when you began attending this church?(Required.)
13.What was your church background prior to coming to this church?(Required.)
14.What activity did you first attend?(Required.)
15.What generally keeps you coming to this church? (Choose the most important reason)(Required.)
16.What do you value most from this church?(Required.)
17.Are you and your family's needs being adequately met at this church?(Required.)
18.Approximately how many miles away do you live from the church building?(Required.)
19.Which of the following most influenced you to initially attend this church? (choose the best answer)(Required.)
20.Were you a Christian when you first attended this church or its activities?(Required.)
21.I believe that the Bible instructs every Christian to find ways to share his/her faith with non-Christians.(Required.)
22.Approximately how many people comprise your network of close friends, co-workers, and/or local family who do not attend any church?(Required.)
23.How many people at this church do you consider to be close friends? (Required.)
24.I feel confident to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.(Required.)
25.Have you shared the gospel message with a non-Christian in the last twelve months?(Required.)
26.I would be interested in participating in local outreach events.(Required.)
27.How many hours do you currently spend each week in your volunteer ministry callings on behalf of this church?(Required.)
28.How many hours a week are you WILLING to spend in volunteer ministry serving the mission of this church?(Required.)
29.Do you feel adequately trained for the ministry you do?(Required.)
30.I am growing spiritually at this church.(Required.)
31.Our church has an intentional discipleship process/spiritual formation path in place for believers that helps them develop into mature Christians.(Required.)
32.Which statement is most true?(Required.)
33.I feel comfortable bringing a non-Christian to a church service?(Required.)
34.Non-Christians are likely to hear the gospel message during worship services at this church.(Required.)
35.Church members and attendees make a sincere effort to help visitors and newcomers feel welcomed into the life of the church.(Required.)
36.At this church people are accepted and allowed to participate in the life of the church before they are actually followers of Jesus.(Required.)
37.Those who attend this church are encouraged to build redemptive relationships with non-Christians.(Required.)
38.What percentage of your gross annual (household) income do you give to the work of Christ (this church and other ministries)?
39.What percentage of your gross annual (household) income do you give to this church?
40.To what degree is finding acceptance and belonging important in your church relationships?(Required.)
41.To what degree do you personally feel like you belong or are accepted as part of this church?(Required.)
42.Do you have relatives living outside your home who attend this church?(Required.)
43.At this church we are encouraged to grieve our disappointments and life losses - and it is okay to be sad when times are difficult.(Required.)
44.This is a safe church where people can be open and vulnerable with what is going on in their lives.(Required.)
45.Are there places in this church where a person can be honest about their feelings without fear of criticism?(Required.)
46.At this church, saying “no” to ministry invitations or participation is okay and respected.(Required.)
47.How do you currently feel about your relationship to this church?(Required.)
48.Describe the current atmosphere of your church.(Required.)
49.I believe the only way to obtain salvation is to . . . (choose the best answer)(Required.)
50.One of the important roles of the Holy Spirit is to identify areas in my life that I need to repent of and seek His help to change.(Required.)
51.Which of these represents your understanding of the basic message of the Gospel? (choose the best answer)(Required.)
52.What makes us acceptable to God? (choose the best answer)(Required.)
53.Regarding my salvation . . .(Required.)
54.I believe that Jesus . . . (choose the best answer)(Required.)
55.I believe Jesus actually came back to life in a physical body after his crucifixion and death.(Required.)
56.I believe the Bible is . . .(Required.)
57.I believe heaven and hell are . . .(Required.)
58.I believe marriage is . . .(Required.)
59.I believe meeting the standards of God's holiness is based on . . .(Required.)
60.I believe the current board has the ability to lead this church into the future.(Required.)
61.Our church and its leaders (including staff) are good at resolving conflict.(Required.)
62.At our church, when conflict occurs, it is usually about . . .(Required.)
63.There is quality leadership training available at this church.(Required.)
64.I would welcome some leadership training.(Required.)
65.I understand the vision, plans and goals of this church.(Required.)
66.I am in agreement with the vision, plans and goals of this church.(Required.)
67.I believe that this church has good potential for healthy growth in the future.(Required.)
68.At our church the following is most true.(Required.)
69.When considering possible change, our leaders are:(Required.)
70.If you brought a new idea to the church leaders, their first response is likely to be:(Required.)
71.If you had to choose between the following pastoral options, which would you choose?(Required.)
72.Pick the most important way that the pastor of your church should relate to the congregation.(Required.)
73.Pick the most important outcome you would like to see from your pastor's ministry?(Required.)
74.Our staff members are good at mentoring and training people to participate in their areas of ministry.(Required.)
75.In what church activities do you regularly attend and/or participate? (check all that are appropriate)(Required.)
76.I am currently ...(Required.)
77.I am currently...(Required.)
78.What is your ethnicity?(Required.)
79.Do you identify as LGBTQIA+?
(Please note: This is not a required question, but we hope everyone in our community feels safe enough to answer honestly. All responses are anonymous and are handled by VCM, a third party organization. No one at The River will have access to the raw data, and we will not be cross-tabulating this question with any other demographic data.)
80.What are your thoughts on The River's Third Way approach?(Required.)
81.Compared to The River’s Third Way approach, my position is more:(Required.)
82.How much emphasis should The River leadership place on connecting our faith to civic issues or politics?(Required.)
83.Since the launch of the Stier investigation in January 2024, The River has satisfactorily handled and communicated about the investigation related to our former youth pastor.(Required.)
84.The River’s affiliation with the ECC denomination is important to me.(Required.)