After a few years of experience in providing churches with the option to have their survey participants complete their NCD Survey online, we can say that it is a very popular feature. But also that paper surveys remain an important option. In addition, many churches are thankful that they can facilitate the survey with a mixture of online and paper form participants to suit the preferences of their people.

While the paper survey option will always remain, there are an increasing number of reasons for you to also promote (and translate if necessary) the online option. Some reasons include:

• Due to a busy program, some churches find it difficult to arrange a time to get everyone together to complete the paper survey. The online option can be initiated immediately and completed any time of the day or night.
• Some churches feel uncomfortable calling aside a select group of people to complete the survey while others (who may not fulfil the participant criteria) feel left out. The online option can be completed more discreetly in private.
• Some churches feel better presenting NCD as a modern online experience for fear that their people may view it as old-fashioned if completed on paper.
• An increasing number of more customised NCD Survey features are only possible when the online option is used. For example, NCD Perspectives provides the online participant with their own individualised profile revealing their perspective of church life, and NCD Pulse (available mid 2019) will allow the pastor to re-invite the online participants to complete a mini survey revealing the progress their church is making on their minimum factor at short intervals after their NCD Survey.

If you would like to translate the online participant option or have it activated for a given country, or translate NCD Perspective, please contact Adam and he can help you out with the next steps.

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