The CAT is a customizable assessment instrument that can help you as a leader: measure the level of satisfaction and energy in the congregation you lead, identify the critical success factors for improving organizational climate, pinpoint the strengths of your congregation’s culture, discover where members would like to go in the future, gauge readiness for change, uncover potential resources you may be missing, and prepare for a search for your next pastor or priest.
But seriously, why is your assessment different from other assessments or church surveys?
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Nationwide Benchmarking: We go beyond raw survey percentages by benchmarking your church’s data against a national database of more than 2,800 congregations over the last five years.
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Sociologically Validated Instrument: Our evidence-based discernment process utilizes a sociologically validated tool that moves past surface-level opinions to evaluate deeper trends and comparative context.
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True Organizational Vitality: By measuring both satisfaction and energy levels, our framework maps your results into operational quadrants, revealing what agreement levels (like 60%) actually mean for your congregation’s health. Just measuring your congregation’s spirituality doesn’t tell you the story you need.
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Over 25 Years of Proven Intelligence: Backed by a quarter-century of continuous experience, our methodology replaces guesswork with clear, reliable data designed explicitly for faith-community decision-making.
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Live Interpretation & Actionable Clarity: We pair our clear Vital Signs Report with a live, consultant-led interpretation session to guide your leadership board through the data and build consensus for your future vision.
What if we want to add something to our CAT? You can:
- Add up to two supplemental modules of your choosing (information on CAT supplemental modules)
- Add up to five additional or supplemental questions specific to your church
What can we do with our supplemental questions?
Supplemental questions can be pulled from modules that were not selected or can be drafted by church leadership to help answer questions about congregational needs. They can be in the form of multiple choice, checkboxes, ranking or rating, and comments or limited text responses.
We do ask that you avoid questions regarding decisions on who will be your next clergy, decisions around who you are and are not willing to hire in leadership roles, and other important specific congregational outcomes that need further discussion.
How can the clergy language reflect our current leadership?
We will modify the language of the assessment to reflect the title of your senior ordained leader. For example, “our pastor/rector,” “our interim pastor/rector,” “our former pastor/rector,” etc. We suggest using “interim pastor/rector” for interims who have been in the congregation for over 6 months and “former pastor/rector” for those pastors or rectors that have been gone for less than 4-6 months. Need more information about the clergy questions or about clergy transitions? Clergy Questions and Transitions Information
What happens at our data review (interpretation)?
For the interpretation of your CAT results we recommend you have leaders of your congregation present including your church board, mission study team, strategic planning team, search team, etc. For our suggestions on getting the most out of this time please read: Best Practices for an Interpretation
What will this cost?
It is always our goal to be transparent and clear about costs. All of the costs are outlined here: Cost of the CAT
More information
Sample of Vital Signs Report from Congregation Assessment Tool
Informational Handouts about the CAT
Transition Profile and Vital Leader Sample Report