MAPCHURCH stands for “Missional Assessment Profiles” for churches. At the MAPCHURCH.com website we offer free “MAPs” that help churches assess perceptions inside their congregations. Our two primary assessment tools are “ChurchMAP” and “MissionsMAP.” Not only do these tools help you to determine current perceptions, they can be useful in establishing a baseline at the start of a new program or new initiative in your church. Later these tools can help you measure the changes that have occurred over time to reveal changing attitudes and the effectiveness of those recent initiatives.

The Assessment Tools

ChurchMAP is a tool that uses 126 statements or “questions” to measure evangelistic, missional, and general awareness in the local church as perceived by the members, staff, leadership teams, or selected groups. Questions are presented to participants via an Internet e-mail link to a web survey. Assessments are offered in the following subjects:

ChurchMAP participants may select English, Spanish, or Korean language translations of the survey questions. It is not necessary for all respondents in a church to choose the same language—all three options are presented to each individual at the time they take the survey.

MissionsMAP is a tool that uses 42 statements or "questions" to measure missions awareness or involvement in the local church as perceived by the members, staff, leadership teams, or selected groups. Questions are presented to participants via an Internet e-mail link to a web survey. Participants may select English, Spanish, or Korean language translations of the survey questions. Assessments are offered using the following Acts 1:8 Challenge paradigm:

The MAPCHURCH Process

To initiate the process, the church designates someone to serve as their MAPCHURCH Administrator. The MAPCHURCH Administrator registers the church on www.MAPCHURCH.com and then, using e-mail addresses, invites as many church members as desired to participate in either the ChurchMAP or MissionsMAP assessment. The MAPCHURCH Administrator may invite all members, random samplings, or specific target groups. Anonymity of the participants is protected at all times—results are reported in aggregate without any individual names. A minimum of 15 people and at least 15 percent of those invited to participate must complete the process to be statistically valid or helpful.

Both ChurchMAP and MissionsMAP offer paper versions of their survey questions. Members who do not want to use a computer may still participate and the church can enter their survey responses for them. The MAPCHURCH Administrator just downloads the survey PDF in either English, Spanish, or Korean; prints it; and gives it to the members to complete and return to the MAPCHURCH administrator. The MAPCHURCH Administrator uses the generic User-Id and generic Password to logon and enter the survey from the paper form. Note that the anonymity of the respondents becomes the responsibility of the MAPCHURCH administrator when paper surveys are used.

The church staff (or deacons, leadership team, etc.) may participate in the MAPCHURCH process as part of the main membership group. However, separate reporting also is available so that, if desired, staff/leaders may be grouped apart from members at the time e-mail invitations are sent to the selected participants. Separate reporting is offered because some churches may find response comparisons between leaders and members to be helpful.

After the two week survey period expires, MAPCHURCH aggregate results will be available for viewing. Results are depicted in bar graphs, showing relative scores on a scale of 1 to 4 for each category or topic. Clicking on a category or topic bar in the graph opens a new window revealing the related questions with corresponding aggregate scores. Also, MAPCHURCH Administrators may download and print any or all of their church’s reports. These include graphic representations of aggregated responses by category or topic, and listings showing the aggregate scores for each question. Pastors and leaders may want to use these reports in presentations or as training aids in their local church.

As a value-added feature, MAPCHURCH provides recommendations that may help churches progress along the missional continuum, from basic to intermediate to advanced levels. These resource suggestions are furnished by Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) sources such as LifeWay Christian Resources, the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, and the Woman’s Missionary Union. Excellent non-SBC resources are also incorporated.

As another value-added feature, MAPCHURCH provides missions recommendations for all churches. These Acts 1:8 Challenge resource suggestions are furnished by the various SBC State Conventions. Links are also available directly to each www.ActsOne8.com State Convention page.

Both ChurchMAP and MissionsMAP offer downloadable copies of the helpful resource recommendations reports. These PDF documents can be printed and distributed for easier viewing or more widespread use by your church leadership.

Note: The local church MAPCHURCH Administrator does not receive a logon “User-Id” and “Password” until after registering their church on www.MAPCHURCH.com. Also paper surveys may not be downloaded and printed until after the Begin Survey button has been clicked.

The Reports

The online reporting module for churches has been designed to function as follows:

• No individual names or individual survey answers are revealed.
• Each MAPCHURCH Administrator may view the aggregate results from their own church respondents (ChurchMAP questions, topics, and categories, or MissionsMAP “Acts 1:8 Challenge” questions, purposes, and target areas). A church cannot view the reports associated with any other church.
• If the MAPCHURCH Administrator clicks a bar on the Member Graph page, a new window opens and reveals the specific questions that comprise that graph bar. The aggregate score for each question is also shown, so that church leadership may discern which questions are scoring as “less missional” versus which questions are scoring as “more missional”, etc.
• All online graphs and reports are available to the MAPCHURCH administrator for PDF printing.

The Partners

MAPCHURCH is sponsored by the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, and the Acts 1:8 Challenge partners. It is available to all churches and consultants at no cost. Its primary use is intended for individual churches, local associations, state conventions, seminaries, SBC national agencies, and church consultants.