Christianity Today has a good article on seven ways to measure your church’s ministry. The article states that “that most people rate church atmosphere within the first 15 minutes of their first visit.” The below seven areas will most likely contribute to how people rate your church’s atmosphere on their first visit:

1. Sensing the presence of God. “Experiencing the supernatural dwarfs everything else as people rate a church’s atmosphere.”
2. Others-centered. “An others-centered church is immediately interested in new people, what they need, and how the church can help.”
3. Understandable terminology. “Healthy churches tend to speak in terms everyone can understand.”
4. People who look like me. “Our level of comfort can be high or low depending on how quickly we find someone else who looks like us.”
5. Healthy problem handling. “What makes a healthy church is not the absence of problems. It’s how problems are handled.”
6. Accessibility. “High ratings go to churches that are ‘barrier free’ in every sense of the term.”
7. Sense of Expectancy. “Most healthy churches are hopeful churches.”

If interested in reading more about the seven ways you can church, I encourage you to read the full text at Christianity Today.