Peer Group Benchmarking Program For Churches

Find out the TRUTH about your church’s metrics... before the TRUTH FINDS YOU

A roundtable environment may be the only time a pastor can get truly objective feedback, and the only time to obtain the TRUTH (good and bad) about how their church is doing in its mission.

ICNU is coordinating a Peer Group Study and Roundtable among churches to both measure and help improve church effectiveness. This program creates a forum for participating churches to review their financial results and operating practices in relation to their peers, then discuss those results in a safe, encouraging environment with each other, learning and teaching effective strategies of church leadership.

 Data Collected and Analyzed Is Comprehensive, Timely and Accurate

Benchmarking tools have become increasingly more important in today’s changing environment. ICNU is sponsoring a Peer Group Study and Roundtable to both measure and help improve church effectiveness.

 Effective Off-Site Roundtable Meetings

Data gathering and reporting is only a small part of the process.  Survey participants will discuss results and trends through roundtable meetings at an off-site location. The meetings, organized by peer grouping, allow churches to network and share ideas and issues with similar peers.  For each peer group meeting, ICNU will compile a detailed presentation of historical trends and analyses of the most current data series. Participants will derive unparalleled value from the dialogue at our roundtable meetings, which are an integral part of our program.

How the Program Works

Once the data are collected, ICNU will generate a data book that displays financial and operating metrics for each individual church within a given peer group. Each book also summarizes simple and weighted average aggregate totals for all other peer groups.

The data inputs are thoroughly reviewed by ICNU personnel, who follow-up individually with churches to ensure completeness, accuracy and consistency. Once the data has been “scrubbed” and any necessary adjustments have been made, we provide meeting books to participants in advance of the scheduled roundtable meetings.

Our roundtable meetings are conducted offsite and typically last one day. Our discussions focus on strategies, missional concentrations, worship and teaching styles, financial models used, best practices, trends, hot buttons, technologies employed, etc. ICNU will also provide a detailed presentation which summarizes the results and provides extensive analysis across all groups and across various reporting periods.

Once all of the roundtables have taken place and any final adjustments have been made, participants will receive a final databook in hard-copy and electronic format. The electronic format allows churches to perform their own further analyses, if desired. In addition, participants receive the updated presentation, which can be used as a template for internal reporting and presentations.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you ensure that the benchmarking data are accurate and can be used for meaningful comparisons between churches?

While benchmarking is never a perfect process, we believe our data are the most accurate, apples-to-apples data in the country. We are continually developing a detailed set of definitions that clearly describe each data element. These definitions are fine-tuned and clarified as necessary each cycle.

But having clear definitions is only half the battle. Over a period of six to eight weeks, ICNU personnel will review and scrub each church data submission in detail. We will look for errors, omissions and data inconsistencies and provide a list of follow up items for each participant as appropriate. When all items are addressed, we prepare the preliminary data books to be used for the PGR.

We believe we are a high-performing church. How would we benefit from the Peer Group program?

While some churches clearly perform better than others on an overall basis, we have yet to find a Peer Group church that is “best in class” in every key metric. Therefore, even for the best performing churches, there are always pockets of opportunity. By realizing improvements in weak areas, high performing churches can achieve substantial benefit from ongoing Peer Group participation.

Our model is different from most other churches. Therefore, what good would it do to compare with “peers”?

While many churches believe their model is unique, they may be surprised to learn that there are other churches that operate in a similar fashion. However, even if a portion of their model is unique, other aspects of their operations may be surprisingly similar to their peers. Most participants will be able to identify a subset of churches within their Peer Group that line up particularly well with their own church. They can then analyze their church results against this subset of churches. This allows for the best “apples-apples” comparisons.

How can I justify the cost of the Peer Group program?

The costs vary depending on church size and frequency of data submissions (annual vs. semi-annual).  In the end, we feel that the benefits of Peer Group participation will far exceed the hard costs and the time and effort required to compile the data.

Want to join a group?

We are currently accepting new clients in all peer groups.  If your church is interested in participating, please contact us.