REVEAL: Facts Are Your Friends – Chris Hollies

Very shortly the new REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey will be available in the UK & Ireland and some church leaders have raised a question as to its potential value. Indeed one church leader suggested that surely they could simply undertake their own in-house questionnaire to find out where people are at in relation to their journey of following Jesus.

The simple answer to that is ‘yes’ – a church could choose to develop its own homemade questionnaire, which I am sure will have some value. But here is the problem with such an approach. It is a bit like undertaking a survey within a copy of the Readers Digest, which is of some interest and worth, but it is quite simply not scientific. There is no standardised bench mark obtained through rigorous research and analysis against which to assess the scores. Hence, how is a ‘good’ or even ‘average’ score determined?

There is no doubt that those behind REVEAL have put the survey fully to the test in regards to its scientific reliability. And as such a church can be confident that it will provide a very useful benchmark against which comparisons can be made and helpful conclusions drawn.

It is said that it is a leader’s role to make informed decisions, and often good decisions can only be made on the basis of the quality of the information received. Sadly, all too often I come across church situations where bad decisions have been taken due to there being a lack of important and  accurate information to hand. As Bill Hybels puts it, facts are your friends.

It is possible that some leaders are quite unaware of the resources in existence to help them to gather the necessary information on which to base decisions, but this is certainly changing with surveys such as the Natural Church Development already in circulation, and now REVEAL.

So I am certainly looking forward to helping churches make the most of REVEAL. It will offer a rich vein of information which will enable leaders make wise decisions about the development of those in their church… and who wouldn’t want to have such information to hand?   

Chris Hollies  is a Church Development Consultant and Trainer based in Belfast who works across the denominational spectrum. He is one of the recognised consultants appointed by the WCA UK & Ireland to assist churches who wish to make the most of the REVEAL survey. See www.leadershipfirst.co.uk for more details.

Related Resources

Defining Moments Audio Journal - Inside REVEAL
REVEAL Books 
REVEAL Further Learning Page
REVEAL Online Conference 
REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey