We are excited to announce that version 3.0 of the Congregational Vitality Assessment (CVA) is up and running and ready for immediate use on a more stable platform, with upgrades to several of its features. We are grateful for the patience of those of you who have eagerly awaited its launch. We are confident you will be happy with the results.

Click here to access the CVA for your congregation

For those new to CVA, here’s a brief explanation of how it came to be, what makes it unique, what it measures, and how congregations use it.

How did the CVA come to be?

The Congregational Vitality Assessment is the result of more than 10 years of research into congregational vitality and sustainability by its creator, the Rev. Ken Howard, founder and president of FaithX. Because of his church planting and redevelopment background, Howard realized that assessing and improving congregational vitality was fast becoming an existential issue in congregations nationwide. So he set about to create a research-grounded vitality assessment tool that would allow congregations to diagnose their vitality (how healthy they are) and their sustainability (whether it has the people, financial, and contextual resources necessary to survive). Then, we collaborated with the Episcopal Church Foundation to bring the CVA online.

What makes the CVA unique?

Our goal in creating the CVA was to provide congregations with the most reliable vitality and sustainability assessment tool at an easily affordable cost. While vitality assessment tools for congregational life have existed in many forms for quite a while, the CVA stands out as the most comprehensive and thoroughly grounded in research and data. At just $35/use, it is significantly more affordable than other tools, empowering congregations to assess their vitality without financial strain. 

What does the CVA measure?

• Vision, Mission, and Discernment
• Lay Engagement and Empowerment
• Context Awareness and Inclusion
• Change Readiness
• Dealing with Differences and Conflict
• Worship
• Spiritual Life
• Formation, Education, and Training
• Outreach
• Leadership and Organization
• Stewardship

The CVA also measures internal and external congregational sustainability.

How are congregations using the CVA?

The CVA can be completed by a representative leadership sample or a single congregational leader, though we strongly recommend the former.

The CVA takes 20-30 minutes to complete. The leadership sample has 14 days to complete this task; then, the answers are scored,

The team leader then receives summary scores for each of the ten vitality areas and two sustainability areas, along with suggestions for ways to improve in each area.

After the results are in, congregations typically review CVA results and recommendations with congregational leadership and the congregation, identifying their congregation’s areas of strengths and weaknesses.

Then, they gather demographic information to explore missional opportunities and challenges in their community.

Finally, they explore potential strategies to leverage their strengths to engage the opportunities they feel called to address. 

We call this process a missional assessment. You can do it yourself or engage FaithX to lead you through it.

Click here to access the CVA for your congregation

A CVA Judicatory Platform is also available: a customized dashboard through which a judicatory can directly administer the CVA to each of its congregations, receive anonymized results (including supplemental, non-scored questions), and monitor their results over time.

A Judicatory Vitality Assessment tool will soon be available on a subscription basis.

For more information on these tools, contact us at info@faithx.net.