Leland's Seven Stewardship Principles — Church Stewardship Program

A partnership with Leland Rubin, creator of the Seven Stewardship Principles, and Allan Bell - CPA, CMA, MBA, Nsites founder and creator

Platform Overview

What Don't You Know? Survey

A sixteen-question Leadership Visibility Assessment. Answer honestly — the value is in the gaps, not the score.

0 of 16 answered

About this survey

An interactive 16-question Leadership Visibility Assessment.

Purpose

Name what leadership cannot currently see about money, people, ministry and household wellbeing.

Time to complete

About seven minutes. Sixteen questions, three answer choices each.

How it scores

Yes 4 points, Partly 2, No 0, converted to a visibility score out of 100. Anything at Partly or below is treated as a blind spot.

What the results produce

A ranked blind-spot list, the applications that close each gap, and next steps into onboarding, operational readiness and coaching.

Your answers stay in this browser session only. Nothing is submitted, emailed or stored on a server.

Who takes what

This survey is for leadership only. Here is how it differs from the other baseline instruments, and where member and visitor evidence actually comes from.

InstrumentWho completes itWho does notWhat it produces
What Don't You Know? — leadership visibility survey (11 questions)Pastor and senior leadership only: executive pastor, business administrator, finance and operations leads.General membership, visitors and most ministry volunteers. The questions ask what leadership can see in its own records, so members cannot answer them.A visibility score and named blind spots — where leadership lacks reliable information.
Seven Principles baseline ratings — digital workbook surveyBroad participation across four groups: Leadership, Staff, Ministry leader and Member. Everyone rates the same areas on the same 0–4 scale.Visitors and anyone who has not yet been assigned to the round.The compiled church perception score per principle, the spread of opinion, and the leadership-versus-member gap.
Church Operational Readiness assessment (100 points)Staff and administrators responsible for accounting, human resources and technology.Members, visitors and ministry volunteers.Section scores, maturity tiers, findings and a 30/60/90-day remediation plan.
Application evidence — not a surveyNobody answers anything. Behaviour is recorded as people give, attend, serve and visit.Visitors are never surveyed. Their baseline is first-visit source, return-visit rate and follow-up timing in Stewardship Nsites Connect.The evidence score per principle: money from Stewardship Nsites, people from Connect, household themes from Personal Nsites in aggregate only.

The baseline has three inputs, not one: leadership visibility, broad perception from the Seven Principles ratings, and recorded behaviour from the three applications. Perception and evidence are always reported side by side and are never merged into a single score.

Evidence-based next step — Church Operational Readiness

This questionnaire surfaces what leaders sense. The 100-point Church Operational Readiness assessment tests it against evidence across accounting and financial reporting, human resources and information technology.

  • Accounting & financial reporting — 35 points

    Assurance, monthly reporting, budgeting, controls, analysis, cash and board oversight.
  • Human resources — 30 points

    Policies, reviews, training, compensation, handbook, hiring, retention and development.
  • Information technology — 35 points

    Security, backup and recovery, licensing, network, privacy, support, hardware, email and planning.

Assessment

Sixteen questions: financial visibility, engagement, membership journey, volunteer capacity, household wellness, and one question for each of the Seven Stewardship Principles.

  1. Financial visibility

    1. Do you have clear indicators showing which households' giving is increasing and which is decreasing?

  2. Financial visibility

    2. Do you know how many months of liquidity you currently have to cover monthly expenses if giving slowed down?

  3. Financial visibility

    3. Do you have mechanisms in place to alert you when recurring contributors lapse?

  4. Financial visibility

    4. When giving drops, can you explain the root cause rather than just the total?

  5. Financial visibility

    5. Is your monthly financial package easy for non-financial board members to understand?

  6. Engagement

    6. Do you know how many first-time guests received follow-up within 48 hours?

  7. Membership journey

    7. Can you show movement from first visit through membership as a measured funnel?

  8. Volunteer capacity

    8. Do you know which serving roles are chronically short and why?

  9. Household wellness

    9. Do you know, in aggregate, how many households in your church are financially fragile?

  10. S1 — Build Financial Literacy

    10. Can your leaders read the church's financial statements, explain budget variances and connect financial decisions to ministry outcomes?

  11. S2 — Build a Financial Reserve

    11. Do you have a written reserve policy and a measured plan to hold three to six months of essential operating expenses?

  12. S3 — Eliminate High-Cost Liabilities

    12. Have you inventoried every high-cost liability and adopted a prioritized, dated payoff plan?

  13. S4 — Cultivate Generosity Through Giving

    13. Do you have a year-round generosity formation plan that measures participation without exposing household giving?

  14. S5 — Invest in Future Ministry

    14. Do you fund future ministry through a written long-range plan, funding formula and prudent investment policy?

  15. S6 — Provide for Your Pastors' Wellbeing

    15. Does the church review pastoral compensation, benefits, retirement provision and rest practices through a documented process?

  16. S7 — Give Generously

    16. Do you set, track and report intentional giving to missions and community outreach against stated priorities?