As a starting point, the Well Church Check-Up is a free resource that provides a report of a church's physical, mental, spiritual health and wellness of their congregants. In a similar way we go to our doctor for a check-up, this is a check-up on your church. This tool assists churches in identifying key focus areas and guide planning and implementing programs for health and wellbeing.

The MAP-IT framework below features future steps to help you improve your church’s path to health and wellbeing using the Well Church Check-Up tool.

To start improving your church's health and wellness journey create a Well Church Account. 

M - Mobilize 

• Form a Well Church Ministry with interest in health and wellness to oversee the Well Church Check-Up Process.
• Designate one member of the ministry to create a Well Church account.

A - Assess

• Create a new survey within the Well Church Check-Up.
• Market and distribute the online survey to your congregation. You can also print out hard copies for those congregants who do not have internet access to complete.
• View real-time results in your Well Church Report.

P - Plan

• Review the findings from your Well Church Report for leading health concerns of your congregation.
• Connect your Well Church Ministry with your County Extension Agent and/or local health partners to help prepare a plan of action.
• Create a Well Church Plan to address the leading health concerns, including needed resources, education, and programs.

I - Implement

• Prepare an implementation process.
  • Who is implementing the plan?
  • When is the plan being implemented?
  • Where is the plan being implemented?
  • How is the plan being implemented?
• Implement your Well Church Plan.

T - Track

• Evaluate the implementation and impact of your Well Church Plan.
  • Did the plan produce the intended outcomes (e.g., increase in knowledge)?
  • When did the planned activites occur (e.g., weekly, monthly, or yearly)?
  • How were the activities shared/marketed (e.g., newsletter, social media, Sunday announcements, etc.)?
  • Are congregants of community members being reached as intended (e.g., track attendance)?

How does the Well Church Check-Up work?

• Sign-up for an account at the top of the page. Once we verify that you are an official religious entity, we will send your account information through your email.
• After receiving your account, account holders will create a suvey code that has a unique link attached. The link should be shared with the congregants of the church registered with the account. The survey will be available at all times for your congegants to take. Once you have received a sufficient number of submissions, you can download your report at the click of a button.
• The data for the Well Church Check-Up Report will be available in three different formats:
  1. Raw Data format
     • A downloadable excel sheet with only raw data, available in Comma Seperated Value (.csv) file.
  2. Table format
     • Numerical processing has been provided with text for suggestions on how to improve health and wellness of congregations.
  3. Visualized Data format
     • Numerical processing of data is visualized into charts (pie chart, bar chart, etc.), and suggestions are provided as well.

How do I use the report?

• Having data can help you effectively strategize your areas of focus to improve the health and wellness of your congregation.
  • For instance, you have a high case of diabetes in your congregation. You can choose to seek out a diabetes education program through AgriLife Extension.
  • Other options can include encouraging health care providers to run a health fair or provide a blood pressure screening event at your church.
  • In addition to focusing on health and wellness, having data can open up avenues for grants or financial needs for your community. 

What does the report look like?

How will the Well Church Team use the data?

• The data collected is anonymous, and will be used primarily:
  1. to prepare individualized church reports to help enhance knowledge of physical, mental, and spiritual wellness, as well as guide decicion making for educational opportunities and resources;
  2. to prepare summary reports for academic researcha nd publication purposes, furthering our current understanding of health and religion; and 
  3. to guide development of resources and educational opportunities, such as topics for our annual Well Church & Community Conferences

What are the topics of the questions that are included in the Well Church Check-Up?

• Wel cover these discussion areas within the course of the Check-Up:
  • General Health
  • Chronic Diseases
  • Diet
  • Physical Activity
  • Smoking
  • Food Security
  • Immunization
  • Mental Health
  • Stress
  • Religious and Spiritual Wellness

SIGN-UP FOR AN ACCOUNT