Like any organization, churches need to know their data so they can identify what works and what doesn’t. Leaders who make decisions without accurate and meaningful data are shooting in the dark hoping to impact their community. Realm, a new approach to church management software, gives church leaders effective tools to record and analyze the data that matters most to their ministries. It provides churches a powerful dashboard tool that gives decision makers a bird’s eye view of their organization and their people. Church leaders should use these tools and meet regularly to view their data, identify trends, and discuss future decisions.
1) Know your church.
Is one of your classes in your children’s ministry overloaded? What do the families in your church look like? Who has just started giving to your church? You can’t impact your community if you don’t empower your church, and you can’t empower your church if you don’t know your congregation. Leaders should know the average age, family make-up and giving history of their congregation. Churches want to reach everyone, but they must start by empowering the people they’ve already reached. A church of single professionals needs different ministry options than a church of young families. Know your church.
2) Know who’s active in your church.
Who is most active in your church? Which ministries are growing? Which people have stopped attending regularly? Has their work schedule changed? Is there sickness in their family? You can’t empower your church if you don’t know who is active in your church. Church leaders should identify those who are active so they can build their capacity to answer the call of God on their lives. Leadership should also recognize which ministries bear the most fruit so that they can leverage manpower and resources to reach more people. Leaders should pay attention to whose attendance drops off so that they can know how best to minister to them.
3) Know how people found your church.
How do your visitors find your church? Did they come because they found one of your small groups? Are they showing up because of a mailer? Are they coming because they saw your church on social media? Did they see your promotion on YouTube? People come to church for different reasons and in different ways. Church decision makers should know how people find their churches so they can lean into things that are already working. This data allows leaders need to funnel the appropriate resources into the most effective outreach.
When used to its full potential, church data has the power to measure the health of your church and motivate action. But you must have the right tools and a plan to properly capture and track data, and then define next steps for your members.
Learn more about how Realm can help you understand your data by downloading our FREE guide, Manage your Data Better for a Healthier Church.