The National Church Life Survey has announced it will be allowing churches access to the largest church life database in Australia, but the question has been raised could the data have been provided sooner?

As of this week, participating churches will be provided with access not only to their congregation breakdown, but also individual answers from their 2006 NCLS survey forms, using a secure key.

Dr Ruth Powell, Director of NCLS Research, says the new "extended profile' feature will help ministry workers understand trends in their local meetings.

“Churches will be able to compare the views of attenders in different age groups, worship services and more,” she says.

“We hope it will help churches hear the voices of their attenders and more effectively focus on their mission goals.”

But at least one minister is questioning the timing of the access, wondering if it might have been more useful closer to the March release of individual Church Life Profiles.

All Souls Leichhardt is already considering the impact their NCLS results might have on their future direction, based on the earlier report.

The Rev Tim Foster, rector of All Soul's Leichhardt believes this new resource could help parishes better understand perplexing results.

"Sometimes there are results which intuitively you're not sure about, so to be able to see what's behind the results would clarify what issues are being identified," he says.

However he says All Soul's are already implementing strategies based on the initial NCLS findings.

"The idea that you can drill down is excellent, but the timing is a bit late for us," he says.

Dr Powell says the delayed release was intended to prevent churches being swamped with information.

"We have found in the past that we have overwhelmed people with data, so we avoided this in the main Church Life Profile," she says.

Mr Foster says NCLS survey results are certainly contributing to key initiatives in his parish, including one focusing on ministry groups.

"People wanted to be equipped for ministry so we're developing a network of ministry teams for certain key tasks and developing a process for people to become engaged in those teams," he says.

Beyond the raw data, the access key also allows churches to check and edit information about themselves provided through Church Search, a free internet "yellow pages' service for churches on the NCLS website.