If you have an aversion to numbers, you may want to skip this post. I understand. There have been too many church leaders who see numerical realities as a goal. Numbers thus can become the end instead of the means.
But let’s not lose sight of the ways numerical tracking can help us. To use the parabolic illustration of Jesus, we can never know where the missing sheep are if we are not keeping track of them (see Luke 15:3-7).
The list of potential records to keep is long, but I am focusing on those eight records I have seen be most helpful to churches. They do not have to be arduous to track.
- Membership. In many churches, this number has become almost meaningless. If a church has 900 members and an average attendance of 150, the gap is too large. Church leaders need to start taking membership seriously and, thus, the way they track it. While speaking at the annual assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church recently, I met a lady who told me she was a member of her Presbyterian church, but still on the membership rolls of two Southern Baptist churches.
- Worship attendance. This metric is the most common among churches today. It is at least a general indicator of involvement. I do not encourage church leaders to try to account for individual attendance in worship services; it is too cumbersome and often invasive. An aggregate number is sufficient, and should include everyone on campus during worship services, including children who may not be in the worship center.
- Small group attendance. Assimilation rates are very high in small groups. Connections are best made here, whatever the group name may be: small groups, Sunday school classes, life groups, home groups, and others. It is vital to keep track of this number, especially relative to average worship attendance. If I see a church with average small group attendance equal to at least 80 percent of worship attendance, I know that assimilation is likely very effective.
- Individual attendance in small groups. It is at this point where I recommend churches keep track of the individual attendees of those in small groups. It can be a relatively easy process with a person responsible for keeping records in each small group, and a good, yet inexpensive, tracking software. I know of a number of churches that do an excellent job of following up on those who are not present in a given week.
- Total undesignated giving. These are the funds that can be used for church budget needs. These totals are often lead indicators about the future growth or decline of the church.
- Total designated giving. These funds include anything not given to undesignated giving. I strongly discourage reporting total undesignated and designated giving as a single number. It can give an impression that church stewardship is better than it really is.
- Individual giving. This metric is required for tax purposes. I will have an article in the future on whether the pastor and staff (outside the one person keeping records) should have access to these records. I never did in the four churches I served as pastor.
- Ministry involvement. This metric is kept in only about 10 percent of churches in America, but I think it is vital. I would attempt to account for the number of people involved in some type of ministry or volunteer activity in the church. This record could be an exception to weekly reporting. Most churches of which I am aware keep track of a single number quarterly. For example, if the number of different persons involved in a ministry increased by 50 from one year to the next, you can assume it is a trend toward greater assimilation and greater church health.
One of the best ways I learn from churches is to hear from leaders and members in those churches. Let me know what your perspectives are on these eight metrics, and let me know what you track in your church.
photo credit: 150521-spreadsheet-pencil-mechanical-eraser.jpg via photopin (license)
Excellent post Thom. I particularly like #8.
When consulting with churches I recommend they measure the percentage of people serving every 3/4 months and quickly respond to trends in this stat.
I think it is a key indicator in determing health.
Thanks for your stellar blog
Thank you as well, John, for your ministry to churches.
Probably, no one who has ever served at LifeWay/BSSB kept more statistical info related to congregations and their growth or potential for it than Andy Anderson (and staffers serving with him)–his work helped leaders know ratios that appeared required in order to sustain growth because those ratios addressed well the constraints to continued growth organizationally. I see know similar research or specific suggestions today.
No, not know 🙂
What tracking software do you recommend? I want to start tracking small group attendance this fall, and am looking for a simple app that would allow the leaders to keep attendance on their phones.
Church Community Builder gets many favorable reviews, but it does not have an app. Church Trac does have an app. But there are many other good choices
We use CCB in our church, and they do now have a mobile option for attendance that doesn’t require logging in. The groups have to be set up for that though. Alternatively, someone with a tablet can easily login and take attendance as well.
Thanks, Daniel. That’s helpful.
No. 1 is very interesting with SBC churches. For some reason we are number driven. Our church has +2000 on the membership rolls and we avg 500 on Sundays. Without a funeral or formal letter of transfer SBC church will not drop anyone from the rolls.
The true membership should be based on Sunday school/ small group AND offering records.
Russ –
I would like to see the membership roll represent true membership. Otherwise, the number is meaningless. We church leaders need to have the courage and wisdom to make membership meaningful and accurate.
Thom, true membership is reflected in tithing records. My personal opinion.
Russ –
I agree with your sentiments. But I would want to be clear that tithing alone does not warrant membership status. For example, a doctrinal heretic should not be granted membership jut because he or she tithes.
Thom,
Many years ago I attended a church that had 300 on the membership role but only around 120 attending. We were forbidden to remove any names unless specifically asked to do by the member. The thought was that since the pastor was paid by a scale that reflected the attendance,to remove members would result in a pay cut.
On the subject of membership I do not see membership taken as seriously as it once was. Part of that is the culture of our day and part of it is because it isn’t stressed enough from leadership. People seem to have this idea that to be a member comes with no strings attached,when it truth it comes with many responsibilities.,financial support being one of the many.
Ron’s explanation makes sense. I understand though don’t agree,
Thom has an excellent little book for Church members, we give it to all who join our new member class.
#7 Jesus knew exactly how much each one gave and he went public with it. Not giving, then not a member and should not influence the budget—at a business meeting especially..
Are you running a church… or a clubhouse?
“EIS” CONFUSION OF ACTS 2:38 BY STEVE FINNELL
The confusion of the meaning of “eis” in Acts 2:38 is the result of honest misunderstandings, deception, falsification, lies, pride and a total disregard of logic, as well as the denial of translations of the Bible as being accurate.
Those who deny that “eis” has been translated correctly as “for” in Acts 2:38 claim that “eis” should have been translated as “because of”.
First let me say in sixty plus translation that I have read not one of them has translated “eis” in Acts 2:38 as “because of”.
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.(NKJV)
For, always looks forward. If you repent and are immersed in water your sin will be forgiven and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For is in the future, not the past.
Because of, always looks backwards. If the ‘for’ of Acts 2:38 actually means, because of, then Peter was telling them to repent because their sins had already been forgiven. Was Peter telling them to repent and be baptized because their sins had already been forgiven and they already had received the gift of the Holy Spirit? Of course not.
THE “EIS” OF MATTHEW 26:28
Matthew 26:28 “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for the remission of sins.(NKJV)
In Matth 26:28 “for” the remission of sins looks to the future. Jesus did not shed His blood “because of”. Jesus did not shed His blood because the sins of mankind has already been forgiven.
There is no translation that translates “eis” as “because of ” in Matthew 26:28. Because of, always looks back. For always looks forward.
The only way to believe that “eis” has been mistranslated in Acts 2:38 or Matthew 26:28 is by self deception.
For does not mean, because of. All the lies, honest misunderstandings, and pride cannot change the meaning of “FOR”.
For means, in order to. For does not mean, because of.
Forgiveness follows the shed blood of Jesus. Forgiveness follows repentance and immersion in water.
YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY BLOG. http://steve-finnell.blogspot.com
Posted by Steve Finnell at 12:34 PM No comments:
Email This
BlogThis!
Share to Twitter
Share to Facebook
Share to Pinterest
Links to this post
#3 is something at our church that I know we don’t have much of. We have a good worship attendance but very few people come to the small groups throughout the week. How could a church cultivate a good small group scene or what kind of assimilation things help that?
Luke –
Check some of my previous posts on groups.
Can you send me the names of some churches that are tracking #8 – Ministry Involvement? I would like to know what criteria as well as the software they may be using.
Thanx for the work, time and effort, the Church am leading is still small in number not more than 50 members in 6yrs. I was taught the method distributing and not be a dictator at least 35 of them have different roles in the church, i think.may be it has helped me keeping them available or because they are few. What i have heard you saying is of small groups am gonna try and see. Thanx you have sharpened me alot long live your family.
HI
There is one more metric that a church should consider and that is tracking guest retention and assimilation. In previous posts you have pointed out the importance of being a “host church”. In a growing church there should be a strategy for tracking guests. On any given Sunday 10% of the attenders are seeking a church family. In congregation of 2,000 this could be as many as 200. If your church is not growing look at you guest retention numbers and strategy. This should also be tracked in all the groups. Is there assimilation from group to worship.
Alex, I agree 100%! It is very important to know 3 things: I.) Are you attracting visitors? 2.) HOW are you attracting visitors (i.e. personal invitations, special events, advertising, etc.)? and 3.) Are you keeping visitors?
I attended (not pastored) a church that had lots of visitors because they were on a busy street. But they weren’t keeping any of them. We finally did a phone survey and the church was shocked to discover that they were perceived (almost universally) as unfriendly! If anyone else had told them that, they would have never heard it.
While I agree that small groups is probably the single most effective ministry for discipleship, not all churches have them, or may have only a few. One church I served had 500 on the rolls, with around 300 attending 2 worship services. Our membership was spread over a large and densely populated Atlanta suburban area, and for many members, Sunday morning was the only time they met other church members regularly. This was especially true for many of our elderly members living alone. With only two pastors, the critical task of staying current with this population was a challenge. After being caught unawares by several hospitalizations, we started putting attendance cards in the worship bulletins. These were not only designed to record member attendance, welcome visitors, and solicit contact information, but they also provided a space for prayer requests (along with a statement that these requests would be kept confidential). We asked folks to put them in the offering plate along with their offering when the plate was passed, and a team of members processed the cards immediately after worship, alerting pastors to prayer requests and visitors, and entering attendance data into our database. ACS allowed us to set up a filter that identifed “frequent attendees,” and then flagged any of those people who had NOT attended for three consecutive weeks. For example, if worship were on June 1, the system would look at attendance records for Feb/Mar/Apr, and mark all those who had attended at least 8 of those 12 Sundays. It would then check the May attendance records for those people, and flag the names of anyone who had been absent for three consecutive Sundays out of the previous four (this was done each Sunday, not just the 1st Sunday of the month; ACS updated the filter automatically to move it ahead one week each Sunday).
The results?
1) It took a while (surprise) to get people engaged in this new habit; we made a point of reminding the congregation every Sunday when we called for the offering.
2) We would usually get fewer than five names each Sunday. Often someone on the Care Team would remember that someone on the list actually WAS at worship, so there was no need to follow up. Or someone would know that this person was out of town. Another scenario was someone who simply refused to fill out the cards. 😉 Depending on the circumstance, we would use that as an excuse to follow up with that person, inquiring about their health, and explaining that our records showed they had been absent. (This was always done gently and somewhat openly disingenuously, and usually by someone who knew the person. The member might express a less-than-favorable opinion about the new “attendance cards,” but we never heard of anyone being truly upset; rather, pretty much everyone was grateful to have been “noticed,” even if they wouldn’t admit it openly.)
More importantly:
1) this helped us establish an accurate attendance record for most members. This was particularly helpful because our denomination (PCUSA) required that the Ruling Elders review every member’s involvement annually, and attendance was a welcome and concrete complement to the only other quantitative metric (giving);
2) Several times, this tool DID flag a quieter (usually older) member whose absence had gone unnoticed – and the follow-up revealed that there WAS a pastoral concern. To my mind, this alone sufficiently countered any objections. Without this, we might not have learned about this person’s situation until it was too late (which had happened several times before we instituted the system, and was the impetus for getting it started);
3) Providing a space for prayer requests was a wonderful pastoral tool. We reached both members and visitors with this tool, and it served to spark a new prayer ministry.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to provide enough details to anyone who might want to try this approach. Thanks so much for faithful, helpful and encouraging ministry, Dr. Rainer.
I am an older man (76) trained as an Education Director in Southern Baptist life. The questions that are being asked in today’s comments were asked 50 years ago. The difficulty has always been to reach people for Christ and to disciple them. Many years ago we moved from keeping good records; when that happened, we were no longer accountable for anyone. We failed to recognize or even think it important to know if someone attented or did not attend. Whether in a small group or a sunday school setting, there must be some way to have this information.
Then, and only then, can we begin to maintain the process of leading people to Christ and discipling them. That’s exactly why we have small groups/sunday school. I am sure that the small group of disciples that followed Jesus knew well when one of them was missing/absent. They immediately began the process of finding them . . of going after them . . of going out into the highways and hedges.
Yes . . keep good records. But more important, use the good records. Let them give guidance.
Assimilation, getting people involved, commitment has been the hardest thing to do. Do you offer tips or step-by-step process for this?
Thanks,
Bob
Thom… All 8 of these are very good and essential. We have begun trying to track #8 on ministry involvement. Question: How does a pastor & leadership team go about the process of determining #1, true membership numbers? We have a database of over 1800 people, a membership roll of over 500 and an average weekly attendance of 225. That weekly attendance is never the same 225 people of course. It is a rotation of about 325-350 persons. We do use CCB which is (somewhat) helpful. But I’m not sure the FBI could find all the folks on my rolls. I know a pastor who sent letters to everyone he had an address for and said “if we don’t hear from you within 30 days, we’re removing you from our membership roll.” What suggestions do you have for determining the answer to #1, membership? Just do our best to separate active and inactive, resident and non-resident members? Are there any churches that have been successful in this kind of scenario? We must do better on the front end, of course, but I’m looking for suggestions on what I believe is the reality of most churches’ situation.
Hi Thom,
I’m as passionate about keeping up with the members as I am about seeing them come to Christ. Like you mentioned, Jesus spoke of leaving the 99 and going after that one lost sheep. My question is what should we do with members who’ve left for whatever reason, should we go after them, when they have made it clear they are moving on. Next, is there a software that can be easily used for existing members as well as new members? Lastly, as the membership grows is it appropriate to send correspondence asking them to renew/update their membership, contact info, etc? As mentioned this is a church not a club and we want to be sensitive to each individual’s need as we lead them to a deeper relationship with Christ!
Thanks!