The Open Path Index

Annual research on the operational health of churches. As thousands of churches complete the assessment, the Index becomes the clearest picture of how churches really run — and how they can run better.

What We Measure

Six dimensions of operational health.

Every participating church is measured across the same six areas — the foundation of the Church Operations Maturity Model™.

Guest Experience
How consistently churches welcome and keep first-time guests.
Volunteer Capacity
Whether volunteer systems are healthy and sustainable.
Communications
How reliably churches turn information into action.
Prayer & Care
Whether care requests are captured and followed up.
Event Operations
How well churches coordinate people, rooms, and communication.
Leadership & Governance
Whether operations are documented and resilient.
Methodology

Rigorous, and privacy-first.

The Index is built from the same 20-question Operations Assessment that any church can take for free. Responses are scored across the six dimensions and placed on a 1–5 maturity scale.

  • Anonymized by design. Benchmarks are always aggregated. No individual church can be identified in any published result.
  • Compared fairly. Churches are benchmarked against others of similar size, so comparisons are meaningful.
  • Growing over time. Year over year, the Index reveals not just where churches stand, but how church operations are changing.

Your data stays yours. Participating in the assessment contributes only anonymized, aggregated signals to the Index — never your church's identifiable information. See our Privacy Policy.

Reports

What the Index will publish.

Our first annual report is being built from the 2026 pilot cohort. Each stream will be a free, downloadable report.

The State of Church Operations

The flagship annual snapshot of operational health across participating churches.

Volunteer Trends

How churches are recruiting, onboarding, and sustaining volunteers.

Guest Experience

How well churches welcome and retain first-time guests.

Communications

How churches manage the growing demands of communication.

Leadership Capacity

Whether operations are resilient enough to survive transitions.

Technology Readiness

How thoughtfully churches are adopting new tools, including AI.

Be First to Read It

Get the first Open Path Index report.

Take the free assessment to both contribute to the research and be notified the moment the first report is published. You'll get your own church's score immediately.

State of Church Operations