FAQ - Research & Confidentiality Questions
How does Church Resources conduct case study research?
To help individuals, congregations and judicatories understand the implications of aging, Church Resources has pioneered a highly comprehensive Inventory of older adult needs. The Senior Ministry Inventory is a diagnostic, quantitative research instrument that assesses the needs of older adults (age 50 and older) in eight life arenas. This Inventory is implemented through a case-study methodology that does not co-mingle data. Each congregation is treated as a unique case-study.
What is the nature of the Inventory questions?
The Senior Ministry Inventory contains 174 questions with 660 possible responses. The Inventory questions are comprehensive and focus on the needs of the whole person including physical health, social contacts, living situation, financial and legal preparedness and matters of Christian faith. God created us with a body, mind and spirit and placed us in communities were we can serve and minister to each other. Every congregation faces the challenge of ministering to the whole person.
The Inventory questions ask for responses that are personal but never private. There are questions like: “Do you live alone?” “Can you shop for groceries by yourself?” “Do you drive a car?” “Do you have a will or living trust?” “Do you have a durable power of attorney for Healthcare?” “Do you own stocks?” The Inventory does not ask for private information. We do not ask for the name, or value of your stocks. We do not ask how much you paid for your car, or the amount of money in your savings.
If an individual thinks a specific Inventory question is too private, the instructions encouraged them to leave the question blank. Choosing not to answer a specific question is O.K. However, as people complete the Senior Ministry Inventory they come to understand the difference between personal and private questions. After all, if the Inventory questions are not personal, then the results would be of no personal value—and that would defeat the purpose of taking the Inventory. Why take an Inventory that is so general that it has no personal value?
What are Church Resources’ policies regarding the confidentiality of research information?
- Research begins with the collection of data and Church Resources’ confidentiality policies begin with the
methods by which we collect and process the data. When a person receives an Inventory at their church,
they also received a 9x12 security envelope. As the instructions on the envelope indicate, the completed
Inventory is to be placed in the 9x12 envelope and sealed before it is returned to the church. This
envelope is not opened until it comes to the Church Resources’ processing center in Huntington Beach, CA.
No person in the congregation can look through the responses in the completed Inventory booklet.
- When your Inventory arrives at the Church Resources’ processing center the 9x12 envelope is opened along
with all other Inventories we have received during that week. The stapled binding is cut off and all
Inventories are “batch processed” in which the Inventory pages are scanned and the data processed and scored.
- Following the processing and scanning of the Inventories, all Inventories are prepared for recycling.
This process begins by cross-shredding all Inventory pages and then delivering the confetti-like scraps to a
paper recycling plant.
- Church Resources stores the data from all Inventories in electronic form on off-line computer servers.
The data is stored in coded form and is unintelligible without an interpretative software program.
Only five members of Church Resources’ staff work with this data to prepare the confidential reports.
No outside person or group has access to this data.
- The Congregation Report does not disclose any personal responses from specific individuals.
Congregation Reports are only a summary, an aggregate of all data from all the individuals in the
congregation who completed the Inventory. Our promise and commitment to every person who takes the
Inventory, and to every congregation and pastor that implements the Inventory, is that we will not
attach any individual’s name to any personal data.
- Church Resources does not add, modify or delete any data collected through our research instruments.
Only the data provided in the original document (Inventory) will be reported. For individuals and
congregations to maintain confidence in Church Resources’ reporting structures, it is important that
we do not add information that is not directly provided by the original source—the individual who
completes the Inventory.
- Church Resources does not gift, sell or remarket any personal data collected by the Senior Ministry Inventory.
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