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Attendance tracking is a thing? That sounds nightmarish!

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
netghost 12y ago
At a guess it's probably tracking aggregate attendance, ie: 60 people were at this service. Like page views in google analytics.
- baddox 12y ago
  That's pretty common in churches. Each Sunday school group will submit a number, and someone will count attendance during the main joined service. The totals will be published in the next week's bulletin, along with total contributions from the week and perhaps year-to-date contributions. Some churches even announce those attendance numbers and compare them to the same week one year ago.
tjr 12y ago
I don't know every conceivable reason why a church would track attendance, but one reason: churches that use / sing "cover songs" (i.e., not public domain, not original compositions) need to pay licensing for the songs, and one of the variables on how much the licensing costs is the average number of people in attendance. [EDIT: https://us.ccli.com/licenses-and-services/church-copyright-license/ccl-single/#pricing https://us.ccli.com/licenses-and-services/church-copyright-l... ]
timmorgan 12y ago
It's used primarily by small groups that meet in homes or whatever - that way the church as a whole can engage with anyone who stops attending (sometimes sign of personal/life issues that the church should be there to help with).
- bencollier49 12y ago
  Genuinely fascinated by this. Wouldn't the members of the small group notice that someone had stopped turning up and drop them a line? Or does customer retention go up to corporate like a sort of Comcast "I want to cancel my contract" call?
  - timmorgan 12y ago
    Well, yes the small group itself should notice and act, but it's also nice to have an overall picture of the health of your small groups and class participation. We have an "Involvement Minister" who watches churn rate so to speak, so hopefully he can help organize better/different small groups or help improve existing ones.
swasheck 12y ago
it is difficult. there are a few legitimate reasons and at least one questionable reason i can think of off the top of my head. attendance tracking would be good for "care" ("hey - it's been a while, is everything ok?"), for decision-making ("we average 35 people at 8am but 400 at 10:30am, what should we do?"). unfortunately, i can also see it used to target "marketing" messages for donations.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

At a guess it's probably tracking aggregate attendance, ie: 60 people were at this service. Like page views in google analytics.

baddox 12y ago
That's pretty common in churches. Each Sunday school group will submit a number, and someone will count attendance during the main joined service. The totals will be published in the next week's bulletin, along with total contributions from the week and perhaps year-to-date contributions. Some churches even announce those attendance numbers and compare them to the same week one year ago.

tjr 12y ago

I don't know every conceivable reason why a church would track attendance, but one reason: churches that use / sing "cover songs" (i.e., not public domain, not original compositions) need to pay licensing for the songs, and one of the variables on how much the licensing costs is the average number of people in attendance. [EDIT: https://us.ccli.com/licenses-and-services/church-copyright-license/ccl-single/#pricing https://us.ccli.com/licenses-and-services/church-copyright-l... ]

timmorgan 12y ago

It's used primarily by small groups that meet in homes or whatever - that way the church as a whole can engage with anyone who stops attending (sometimes sign of personal/life issues that the church should be there to help with).

bencollier49 12y ago
Genuinely fascinated by this. Wouldn't the members of the small group notice that someone had stopped turning up and drop them a line? Or does customer retention go up to corporate like a sort of Comcast "I want to cancel my contract" call?
- timmorgan 12y ago
  Well, yes the small group itself should notice and act, but it's also nice to have an overall picture of the health of your small groups and class participation. We have an "Involvement Minister" who watches churn rate so to speak, so hopefully he can help organize better/different small groups or help improve existing ones.

swasheck 12y ago

it is difficult. there are a few legitimate reasons and at least one questionable reason i can think of off the top of my head. attendance tracking would be good for "care" ("hey - it's been a while, is everything ok?"), for decision-making ("we average 35 people at 8am but 400 at 10:30am, what should we do?"). unfortunately, i can also see it used to target "marketing" messages for donations.