Your church is not a score.
This lab will not tell you that your church is “good” or “bad,” and it will not tell you whether to stay or leave.
Before you begin
LOOK FOR HEALTH.
Answer from your own experience of the church over roughly the last 6–12 months. One person’s answers are a perspective, not an objective diagnosis.
Health can be uneven.
A church may show real strength in some areas while other patterns are still developing. That is normal material for prayer, conversation, and growth.
Local stewardship matters.
A healthy function is stronger when the local church itself increasingly carries it rather than depending on an outside person or organization.
Talk with people who know the church.
Use the report with trusted leaders or mentors in your local healthy church. Ask for examples, context, and a wise next step.
Why the first part stays mostly blindThe statements intentionally do not tell you which characteristic they are scoring. Answer what is actually true instead of trying to create a preferred profile. The framework appears after you complete the assessment.
About 10–13 minutes. Your progress saves on this device.
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Answer what is actually true.
Now map local stewardship.
These questions are direct because the Church Circle needs to know who normally carries each function. “Outside help” is not automatically wrong; this simply shows where stewardship currently sits.
Please answer every question on this page. “Not enough experience” is a valid answer.
Church Health Lab · discernment report
Church health signals
Read this as a conversation starter.
The report reflects one person’s experience. It does not declare that a church is healthy or unhealthy as a whole, and it does not recommend staying or leaving. Use it to name evidence of health, ask better questions, and choose a constructive next step with trusted leaders or mentors.
Church Circle health web
Each slice represents a Church Circle function. The colored background fill and the red web both show relative health. The symbol sits directly on that function's point, and its ring color shows stewardship status. Closer to the center means a stronger health signal. Farther from the center means a weaker health signal. Right on the boundary line means the church is carrying that function but still needs some outside help. Just outside the boundary line means the function still leans noticeably on outside support. Farther outside the boundary ring means greater outside dependence or that the function is not yet consistently practiced.
Local stewardshipPeople in this church regularly carry the function.
Local with light supportPeople here carry it, with a little outside help. It sits right on or just inside the boundary line.
Shared with significant supportPeople here are involved, but the function still leans noticeably on outside help. It sits just outside the boundary line.
Outside-dependentThe function depends substantially on someone outside the church, so it sits farther outside the boundary line.
Not yet / unsureIt is not consistently happening, or you do not know.
Health directionCloser to the center means stronger health. Moving outward means weaker health. Crossing outside the boundary line shows increasing reliance on outside help or a function that is not yet consistently practiced.
12 characteristics
These are the health signals produced by the blind assessment. Higher scores mean that pattern was more evident in your responses, not that the church has “passed” a test.
Where health seems most evident
Look for concrete examples worth thanking God for and reinforcing.
Where to strengthen next
These are not failure labels. They are areas where your responses showed less evidence or more inconsistency.
Strengthening plan
Simple next steps toward greater health
These cards focus on the areas where your responses showed the least evidence of health. Use them with trusted leaders or mentors, choose one small practice at a time, and look for real change rather than adding another program.
Framework
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
The 12 characteristics describe broad patterns of biblical church health. The Church Circle gives a simpler visual language for nine church functions and local stewardship.
The Church Circle
The circle uses nine simple functions: baptism, prayer, making disciples, love, worship, the Lord’s Supper, giving, God’s Word, and leaders. In this Church Health Lab adaptation, position inside or outside the circle shows who normally carries the function; distance toward the center reflects the broader health questions connected with it.