A Transforming Congregations Service Offered by The Columbia Partnership [TCP]
Fresh Eyes is a starting point. It is about reality. It provides an assessment of what takes place in a congregation on a Sunday/weekend. It is an outside observation that provides affirmations, challenges, and recommendations. It improves the quality of your congregational experience for seekers, guests, regular attendees, as well as members. It is about transforming congregations.
Purpose
To assess the quality of the congregational experience for new people, regular attendees, and members through an on-site assessment of the Sunday/weekend experience, and the communication and marketing that support it, so that your congregation might serve with the highest possible quality and attractiveness the people to whom God is sending you.
Benefits
Fresh Eyes can see things you are overlooking about your Sunday/weekend experience:
- Provides an objective third-party assessment of the Sunday/weekend experience.
- Discovers signs invisible to staff, members, and regular attendees, but often obvious to visitors and casual attendees.
- Reinforces the hunches of staff, members, and regular attendees about areas of the Sunday/weekend experience that need attention or improvement.
- Focuses the congregation on those actions that add value and a greater quality of experience for visitors and casual attendees.
- Allows outside observers, who have collectively been in thousands of congregations, to assess quality of the serve of your congregation.
- Provides a specific list of affirmations, challenges, and recommendations for improvement for the Sunday/weekend experience on which the congregation can take action immediately.
- Provides a season of coaching [120 days] to assist the congregation in focusing on implementing the recommendations, having outside accountability for the faithfulness and effectiveness of actions, and having an evaluation as to whether the new, renew, and revised actions truly impact the quality of the experience.
Congregations
Ten congregations who can benefit from Fresh Eyes?
- Congregations who want to sharpen their ability to be attractive to visitors/guests, and to bring a higher percentage of their visitors/guests back a second and third time.
- Congregations engaging in a strategic planning process and need to assess their attractional characteristics.
- Congregations who perceive they may have become complacent as to their attractiveness.
- Congregations starting a new service who want to be sure they are engaging in excellent attractions actions.
- At the beginning of an interim season without a senior pastor and desire to evaluate their attractional characteristics.
- As a new senior pastor arrives to evaluate their attractional characteristics.
- Soon after moving into a new worship center/sanctuary, or other major facilities used on Sundays/weekends to determine if their attractional efforts are excellent and how they can be continually improved.
- Soon after relocating to a new site to help establish high quality patterns of attracting and keeping visitors/guests.
- In preparation for a new growth effort where it desires to do its attractional function well.
- Congregation at least 300 in Sunday/weekend worship attendance. [For a congregation less than 300 in attendance The Columbia Partnership offers a modified process known as Fresh Eye Lite. It is priced lower and is not as detailed in the pre and post assessment actions. For more information on Fresh Eye Lite send a message to Client.Care@TheColumbiaPartnership.org or call 803.622.0923.]
Process
The assessment process has seven steps, as follows:
1. Decide
- Make an initial determination to engage in a Fresh Eyes: One-Day Congregational Assessment
- Determine the specific purpose for this assessment, the three to five highest priority issues for the assessment to address, and what you think must happen for the assessment to be considered successful.
- Complete a covenant with The Columbia Partnership for the Fresh Eyes: One-Day Congregational Assessment. Included is the assignment of the TCP consultant/coach to this project.
2. Prepare
- Gather a Fresh Eyes Team of the senior pastor, and appropriate staff and lay leaders. A team of seven to nine total people is sufficient.
- Hold an initial orientation conference call with the chosen TCP consultant/coach.
- Choose a 40-day window during which the assessment would take place. The actual Sunday/weekend will be known only by the Fresh Eyes Team and the TCP consultant/coach.
- Complete the preliminary information requested by the TCP consultant/coach and send to him/her at least 10 days before the beginning of the 40-day window.
- Hold a final preparation conference call with the TCP consultant/coach.
3. Conduct the One-Day Congregational Assessment
- TCP consultant/coach is on the church field for 24 hours over Saturday and Sunday.
- He/She makes a preliminary run through the facilities on Saturday guided by a member of the Fresh Eyes Team.
- He/She observes the congregation at worship, learning, and fellowship from at least 30 minutes before the first worship, fellowship, or learning event until at least 30 minutes following the last one; not typically counting Sunday evening activities unless they are primary worship and learning events and this has been negotiated as part of the process.
4. Receive
- Mid to late Sunday afternoon the TCP consultant/coach provides oral feedback to the Fresh Eyes Team. This also provides an opportunity for dialogue that may clarify some elements or activities observed by the TCP consultant.
- Within three weeks a full written report will be provided by the TCP consultant/coach to the Fresh Eyes Team.
5. Dialogue
- The TCP consultant/coach is available to coach the Fresh Eyes Team through the report, its implications, and empowering actions for the next 120 days. Up to eight telephone conference calls may compose this season of coaching.
- Additional coaching beyond 120 days is available under a new covenant with the TCP consultant/coach.
6. Act
- The oral report on the day of the assessment will provide the Fresh Eyes Team with some quick actions they can take which may provide some immediate transition, change, and improvement of the quality of the work and ministry of the congregation.
- Within 30 days after the written report is received the Fresh Eyes Team should have begun actions that are responsive to the report. Those that require actions by other groups in the congregation should be clearly referred to them with specific points of accountability and reporting.
- In many cases it is within the authority of the senior pastor and staff to move forward on the recommendations. They are encouraged to do so.
7. Evaluate
- Every 120 days the Fresh Eyes Team should evaluate the progress being made.
- As appropriate, actions should be recalibrated to maintain a focus on continual improvement in the Sunday/weekend experiences to maintain the highest possible quality and benefits to people participating in these experiences.
- Depending on the pace of transition and change in a congregation the Fresh Eyes: One-Day Congregational Assessment can be repeated every 18 to 36 months to boost the continual improvement of the congregation.
Cost and Logistics
A full Fresh Eyes assessment is $1,200 to $2,400 depending on the specific consultant utilized and the travel costs. Fresh Eyes is priced to include all fees and all travel-related costs. No additional charges will be made to the congregation unless they request additional services. For clarity, the cost includes the following services:
1. The services of a consultant/coach for steps 2 through 7 as stated above, up to 120 days following the on-site assessment. The consultant/coach may also be involved in step 1 or may be the person assigned by mutual agreement of TCP and the congregation at the end of step 1.
2. All travel, meals, and lodging for the consultant.
3. A manual for each member of the Congregational Assessment Team.
Fresh Eyes Lite
A process known as Fresh Eyes Lite is also available for congregations who do not need all the services that are part of Fresh Eyes, or who have a limited budget. For more information, contact Client.Care@TheColumbiaPartnership.org or call 803.622.0923.
