Nine Years of Surveys in a Megachurch

What I’ve Learned about Listening to Our People

Watermark Community Church of Dallas uses periodic surveys to better understand congregants’ experiences, hearts, and opinions regarding COVID. Watermark is an enormous church with diverse members. For the past nine years, Benson has also been involved in surveying Watermark’s thousands of members in a variety of ways—including building surveys from scratch and analyzing, reporting, and using survey results. Over time, the surveys expanded to encompass discipleship and two-way communication.

Key areas for learning

Who of our members are coming in-person vs. their online attendance—and how often do they stream? When they haven’t been attending in-person, why is that? Are community groups are meeting in-person or not?
Current serving status. Impact of the recent sermon series
How well we’ve communicated about key things. Plus, a healthy dose of free response questions, segmented out, to get a feel for (1) our Members’ hopes for 2022, (2) thoughts about all the recent leadership changes, or (3) generally “what’s on their mind.”

About the Author: Benson Hines

Benson Hines is the Director of Serving at Watermark Community Church in Dallas. He coaches ministry areas on their use of volunteers, helps members find their best service opportunities, and builds tools and systems for all of the above. Benson received his B.A. in Psychology from Texas A&M, followed by a Master of Arts in Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He’s also a certified Strengths Coach through Gallup. He and his wife Catherine live in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch and are raising a six-year-old and a four-year-old (who is quick to let everyone know he’s really four-and-a-half).