Every church has a system in place for measuring attendance regardless of whether or not they use a church management system. While counting heads every week may provide an easy gauge on your church growth, church attendance does not equal church health. So, how can your church get an accurate description of your ministry effectiveness based on attendance?
Here are a few of the attendance numbers that really matter for the overall growth of your church:
1. The frequency of attendees.
Improving your attendance frequency directly impacts your church’s giving, volunteers, and growth. By identifying "Every church has a system in place for measuring attendance regardless of whether or not they use a church management system." the number of Sundays in a month and the average members at church, you’re able to get a clearer picture of how well your church is connecting people to ministry. For instance, Church Community Builder’s Event Week feature allows you to monitor and measure how active each church member is throughout the week. Identifying inconsistent attendees is an important aspect of breaking the system of catch and release ministry in your church
2. The ratio of guests to people who were attending, but aren't anymore.
While your first-time guest numbers may be steadily increasing, it means nothing if you’re not retaining them. While your church may be growing by 10 percent year after year, you also need to make sure you’re not losing 2 percent because of your lack of focus on retention. Your attendance numbers could be exponentially higher if you close the back door of your church.
3. The number of unidentified regular attenders.
This number should be as close to zero as possible. Statistics show that 90 percent of guests will return to visit a second time if someone follows up with them on the same day of that first visit. If your church isn’t recording what you know and strategically following up with your first-time guests, you’re missing a huge opportunity to leverage attendance numbers that will increase church growth. If the number of people in your church is high, work as fast as you can to get them plugged into your ministry.
Counting heads is a great way to get a quick picture of your church’s growth, but if you truly want to accelerate your church’s growth, you have to dig a little deeper into the numbers. By taking the time to measure frequency, retention, and connection, your church will be able to grow in a way that’s healthier and more sustainable, fueled by more than simply taking a head count each Sunday.
What systems does your church have in place to measure these attendance numbers? How has it paid off in the overall growth of your church?
