by Mike Holmes
A pastor friend asked about metrics. Here are a few thing we track at our church in Wyoming.
Monthly Touch- Number of different folks that have attended a service. We track attendance of each service. This number helps us see how many we really are “touching” and helps us to plan accordingly. Last month our high attendance at Sinclair Baptist was 93. Our touch was 153. This make you manage differently. For example, bulletins handed out on Sunday are missing approx. 60 people. Solution: minimize weekly bulletin and do more monthly mailed “bulletins”.
Monthly Touch Percentage:Touch number divided by possible attendees. (In our case there is about 9000 people within practical driving distance) 153/9000=1.7% This is a stark reminder of the immensity of the task and just how far we have to go.
Hang Time: length of time before the last non-staff person leaves after a service is over. This give us a tangible marker for the value of relationships/fellowship. Good friendships contribute to a healthy church. We actively promote and manage after church engagement to keep people around and talking. After-church refreshments, signups, little craft projects for the kids, packing food boxes, even short specific classes, etc… We rejoice when we break the one hour mark. We are usually in the 50 minute range without a designated activity.
You are right to focus on the metrics. Numbers are important. What gets measured is what gets done!
by Mike Holmes