Church Health Assessment (CHA)

This robust and statistically reliable instrument compiles congregational members’ perceptions on nine different areas, resulting in a report that provides church leaders with a unique, personalized, objective dashboard for their church.

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Whether your church is navigating a minister transition, needs to capture a renewed vision, or seeking to discern where to deploy resources and energy for the future of the congregation, the CHA offers a starting point on the perceptions of the congregation’s health from its members.

The instrument gathers numerical ratings and open-ended comments from participants, and summarizes member involvement and demographics. Its online platform makes it reasonably priced and simple to administer, and the report for church leaders is user-friendly.

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CHA Experience

WHAT WE MEASURE

9 FACTORS OF HEALTH

Although other similar tools exist for congregational assessment, this is the only tool available today that is tested for reliability and specifically designed for Churches of Christ. It takes the guesswork out of measuring congregational attitudes and perspectives. The CHA measures the following key factors:

**Ministry and activity**
**effectiveness**

**Spiritual formation and**
**discipleship**

**Congregational culture,**
**communication, and conflict**

TRAFFIC LIGHT FEEDBACK APPROACH

The three levels of feedback offer a visual impact of results. This gives the congregation results that are easy to understand and categorize for further conversation, utilizing statistical standard deviations.

More about the CHA Experience

Consultants

The Siburt Institute actively works with a number of consultants who are trained and authorized to use the CHA. You can find these consultants’ profiles and contact information here.

Researchers

Dr. Carley Dodd and Dr. Suzie Macaluso, statistical and social researchers, developed the CHA for the Siburt Institute. Their process included gathering a focus group of church consultants and leaders, identifying the nine key factors listed above, and developing survey questions to measure each factor.

Suzie has been a long-time partner of the Siburt Institute in some of our initiatives and has now joined the team as Research Director. She is trained as a sociologist of religion and survey researcher, and she and Dr. Carley Dodd developed what is now known as our Church Health Assessment (CHA) in 2016. Her current projects include updating and maintaining the CHA and working with the interfaith group Faith Communities Today (FACT) to gather data from Churches of Christ as we seek to understand the United States' religious landscape better.

Dr. Carley Dodd is a retired professor of communication and former dean of the graduate school at ACU. He has been president or chair of several professional organizations and a consultant or trainer for over 80 corporate, church, and non-profit organizations, including Fortune 500s. Carley was named the Outstanding University Teacher of the Year in Texas and the ACU Teacher of the Year, and received the Top 30 Intercultural Scholars Award from the University of Shanghai. He has authored/co-authored around 140 articles and scholarly papers and 12 books. Carley serves as an elder at the Southern Hills Church of Christ. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. from ACU and a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma.