Weekend Tithing

This past weekend we launched what could be called The Great Tithing Experiment. A fellow number cruncher has an excellent account of what we did, the numbers and what it means - so read Tim's blog if you haven't already.

Show Me Da Money!

You may be wondering why in my last post about the Executive Reports there was no mention of those reports containing any financial information. And before the questions and comments start, I’ll just answer it upfront. The answer is actually pretty simple: they’re overrated.

Now I’m not suggesting that your financial position is irrelevant, but my belief is that most churches put more emphasis on the finances than they do the ministry. We crafted the Executive Reports to show us the condition of our ministry efforts. Not our checkbook.

Sure, someday we’ll probably include some trending on giving and try to figure a way to get a handle on tithing statistics, but for now it’s not important. We’d rather know how we’re doing at life change. Plugging people in. Getting them connected to Christ. You know, what the church is supposed to be doing.

I think when a church concentrates too much on the finances it limits the dreams and the vision. The leadership starts to automatically scale back and only attempt what can be readily paid for. (No, I’m not advocating going into debt.)

You need to dream your dreams and cast your vision with all the anticipation and excitement that God has given you. Plan big. Go for it. Dare to think what your community will be like as you make a difference and transform it. And then, and only then, look at the finances. Because the only thing your finances will tell you is how much of your vision you can accomplish at this moment. It’s not a mandate to scale back. It’s only a measurement of how much of your dream you can currently do. Plan phases. Be strategic. But never, ever, limit the vision based on da money.

Hot Off the Presses

This past week we released our first set of Executive Reports (part of the reason there was no post last week – I was scrambling). These reports are, for the most part, quick hit summaries of the major areas of our ministry that are designed to give our Senior Management Team a snapshot of our church health. They basically summarize and trend these areas of our ministry:

• Volunteer team rosters
• Participation in ministry events
• Attendance at serving opportunities

We decided to tackle these first and then add on as we get more comfortable with our data. I said “more comfortable” with our data because, well, the process hasn’t been easy. The structure of our database has been great for individual ministry needs – but isn’t set up for enterprise-wide reporting. I had to correlate 17 different reports to generate the half dozen we issued.

Which is why if you are just setting up your ministry database you’re in a sweet spot – make sure you design in enterprise-wide reporting. You don’t need to use it right away, but believe me, you don’t want to have to restructure somewhere down the road.

Beyond the Numbers

We recently completed another weekend survey at GCC. We try and do a weekend survey about every 6 months or so to try and get a handle on the simple demographics of our congregation, their spiritual growth and other ministry related aspects. Being the numbers geek, I started thru the returns after the first service on Saturday. There I read stories behind the numbers that rocked my world.

We asked what I thought was a simple question –

If you can recall a specific next step you’ve taken toward Christ recently, what was it?

I was prepared for the expected answers – I started to pray more, read my Bible, etc. All great next steps. The ones I wasn’t ready for were –

• I had a heart attack
• I had a mastectomy
• My husband left me
• I lost my job

…and many others.

These were the stories of people who saw life threatening and tragic situations as positive steps toward Christ. People whose faith in Jesus overshadowed their situation. People who would rather say “thank you Jesus for bringing us closer” than “why me?”.

Don’t focus on just the numbers. The numbers aren’t the whole story. Measuring Innovation is sometimes about telling stories.

Use Those Numbers

Ever thought about using the statistics you generate for monthly and quarterly reports for something else? How about making them come alive – put them to a purpose that might not seem obvious? In many instances statistics are historical – they look at past occurrences. But how about using them to look ahead?

For instance, right now I’m putting together some stats to help with our construction project. Sure, attendance trending is important for overall building size, but I’m talking about using statistics to predict things like crowd movements and volunteer and staffing levels. No, I haven’t overdosed on Numb3rs. This is real stuff.

By using our child check-in numbers I can get a sense for where we should add new check-in stations in the addition. In fact, these same numbers allowed me already to pull a check-in station from the lower level and redeploy it on the main level. The reason? Under-utilization. Gut feeling? Nope, hard facts.

Like these figures for the first half of 2007:

• 43% of our check-ins happen in our skylight area. Only 23% occur on the lower level.
• We’ve had 14 services so far this year with over 400 child check-ins. 39 services have had over 350 check-ins.
• Percentage wise Saturday services utilize the north entrance stations more than Sunday services.
• We’ve totaled more than 35,000 child check-ins in the first 6 months.

These kinds of numbers help me see patterns – data patterns and trends that correlate with the movement of people. Patterns that allow us to staff areas appropriately. Patterns that help us to allocate resources. Patterns that help us create the environment and experience we want for our guests. It’s taking our data and making it work for us.

So, are your statistics working for you?

Building Relationships...

isn’t something that comes naturally to most techies. Like many technically-minded people, it’s something I struggle with. Yet I’m finding it’s an important aspect of being able to generate good metrics. I’m learning (in some cases the hard way, ouch!) that metrics are about more than numbers – it’s about people. Not the people that the numbers represent, but the people that use the numbers - you know, your teammates. Ministry partners. Other staffers. Volunteer leaders.
They are your most important allies. You need to get to know ‘em. How they work. How they think. What makes ‘em tick. Not as some weird psychological experiment, but because your responsibility is to take raw data, sometimes a mountain of raw data, and make it understandable and useful. Does your guest services team favor tables or graphs? Would your senior management team like summaries or in-depth reports? Do illustrated diagrams help with comprehending the pertinent details?
All those decisions are governed by what your teammates need. You can’t get them what they need if you don’t know what they want. And you won’t know what they want unless you know them. How do they operate their ministries? What are their processes? Systems? What segment of your church population do they touch? Do you actually know what they do?
The purpose of a metrics and statistics program is to get your ministry leaders the information they need to make informed decisions quickly. Make sure it’s understandable. Build those relationships.

Great Waste...Less Filling

Looked at your statistics and metrics lately? I mean really looked.
Structure. Design. Content.
Just what are you collecting?
Let's face it. We've all been there. The mindset that says 'more is better'. Collect all the data you can. Crunch all the numbers. Generate all the statistics and metrics possible.
Wrong.
Statistical analysis needs to be relevant. Without context it is no better than the raw data. It needs to represent something. And that something needs to be relevant to your process, your ministry or your church. It needs to answer questions about the effectiveness you’re having in your mission and vision. Sure, you can do a trend analysis on how many people during your weekend services are wearing red shirts. But does it mean anything?
We can get so caught up in collecting data that we forget what it will be used for. We forget that our analysis needs to change as our methods change – as we innovate we need to look at our data collection and our statistics. Still collecting the same data you did in 1989? Might want to take a look at that. Still collecting the same data you did in 2005? You might want to take a look at that too.
So before you have that conversation with your IT guys about how you need more data storage space, take a look at what you're collecting. Prune. Trim. Get relevant. Stop contributing to the Great Waste of disk space and make your data and statistics Less Filling. I think you’ll find it’ll be easier to keep pace with your innovation strategy.