There was Good News and Bad News

[Pete Vecchi]

The Good News: For June, our congregation was up to 23 (from 21 the previous month) in average Sunday morning worship attendance.

The Bad News: During the first two Sundays of July, 19 people attended our services each Sunday.

The Good News: During the 3rd and 4th Sundays in July, 26 people attended our services each Sunday.

The Bad News: There were 5 Sundays in July this month, and by morning of July's final Sunday, we were notified of 12 people who are at least fairly regular attendees that would be unable to attend our morning service that day. In addition, 2 more regular attendees weren't there whom we did not hear from, making 14 people missing on the 5th Sunday of the month.

The Good News: During the final Sunday of the month, we generally celebrate The Lord's Supper, and when we did so on the last Sunday of July, 5 people who had not yet ever worshiped with us when we celebrated The Lord's Supper in June partook of it with us during the final Sunday of July.

The Bad News: Looking at things from a purely statistical standpoint, our average attendance for Sunday worship services per week went down from 23 in June to 21 in July.

The Good News: We had 5 first-time visitors to our services in July, 4 of whom came back at least a 2nd time (all of whom were there on the final Sunday of the month), with the 5th first-time visitor for July attending her first service with us on the final Sunday of the month.

[Diane Likens]

Ewwww. Math and statistics! You're giving me a headache!

[Jim Chabot]

The Good News: For June, our congregation was up to 23 (from 21 the previous month) in average Sunday morning worship attendance.

The Bad News: During the first two Sundays of July, 19 people attended our services each Sunday.

The Good News: During the 3rd and 4th Sundays in July, 26 people attended our services each Sunday.

The Bad News: There were 5 Sundays in July this month, and by morning of July's final Sunday, we were notified of 12 people who are at least fairly regular attendees that would be able to attend our morning service that day. In addition, 2 more regular attendees weren't there whom we did not hear from, making 14 people missing on the 5th Sunday of the month.

The Good News: During the final Sunday of the month, we generally celebrate The Lord's Supper, and when we did so on the last Sunday of July, 5 people who had not yet ever worshiped with us when we celebrated The Lord's Supper in June partook of it with us during the final Sunday of July.

The Bad News: Looking at things from a purely statistical standpoint, our average attendance for Sunday worship services per week went down from 23 in June to 21 in July.

The Good News: We had 5 first-time visitors to our services in July, 4 of whom came back at least a 2nd time (all of whom were there on the final Sunday of the month), with the 5th first-time visitor for July attending her first service with us on the final Sunday of the month.

Wow! Sounds exactly like our church! It is unreal how the normal ebb and flow of folks attending creates big highs and deep lows.

Under Edit, Well maybe not, after reading your other thread. We have only had one person leave since I've been there, and he moved to Florida. Everyone we do have is loving and welcoming, wouldn't want to see a single one head for the door. Although the history is of bitter cold, and according to our Pastor and the handy charts at the research center, those cold ones left about five years ago.

[John Reilly]

More good news ... based on the "NEW NORMAL" that says people will attend church one out of every two Sundays, this means your actually Sunday Morning enrollment is between 54 and 78. Based on further projections of having visitor return twice, your future sunday morngo attendance will be between 100 and 150. Best hire a youth pastor!

[Pete Vecchi]

More good news ... based on the "NEW NORMAL" that says people will attend church one out of every two Sundays, this means your actually Sunday Morning enrollment is between 54 and 78. Based on further projections of having visitor return twice, your future sunday morngo attendance will be between 100 and 150. Best hire a youth pastor!

Actually, we do have a Pastor of Students and Young Adults on staff, and he's going a GREAT job.

Over the past month, between our morning worship services and what we count for "Sunday School" (if someone attends our post-service lunch and Bible Study or the weekly youth group meeting, they are counted as having attended "Sunday School"), we have had 39 people attend.

[Susan Unger]

The Good News: For June, our congregation was up to 23 (from 21 the previous month) in average Sunday morning worship attendance.

The Bad News: During the first two Sundays of July, 19 people attended our services each Sunday.

The Good News: During the 3rd and 4th Sundays in July, 26 people attended our services each Sunday.

The Bad News: There were 5 Sundays in July this month, and by morning of July's final Sunday, we were notified of 12 people who are at least fairly regular attendees that would be unable to attend our morning service that day. In addition, 2 more regular attendees weren't there whom we did not hear from, making 14 people missing on the 5th Sunday of the month.

The Good News: During the final Sunday of the month, we generally celebrate The Lord's Supper, and when we did so on the last Sunday of July, 5 people who had not yet ever worshiped with us when we celebrated The Lord's Supper in June partook of it with us during the final Sunday of July.

The Bad News: Looking at things from a purely statistical standpoint, our average attendance for Sunday worship services per week went down from 23 in June to 21 in July.

The Good News: We had 5 first-time visitors to our services in July, 4 of whom came back at least a 2nd time (all of whom were there on the final Sunday of the month), with the 5th first-time visitor for July attending her first service with us on the final Sunday of the month.

You're describing my church the past few years as well. It is strange to me to see this. But I think the difference is that the church I grew up in was in a lower income area where no one had money to leave for vacation other than church camp. Where I am now, the beach is deemed an affordable vacation and near enough that people leave for it many weekends.

[Marsha Lynn]

Unlike Diane, I love statistics. And with church statistics, it's always fascinating to look at the people behind the numbers.

Not counting people from other churches who were part of our VBS or came to hear the district IMPACT team, we had at least 127 local people walk through the doors in July -- 12 of them there specifically for VBS, three more for the IMPACT team. We have an average attendance of around 65. I'm supposed to be in charge of the Outreach Committee for the year, but my message is that the outreach we're already doing is amazingly effective. If we could find a way to incorporate the people who walk through our doors in the course of a year we would have no need for additional intentional outreach events. Thus, my "outreach" focus is on Why do they come? and Why don't they stay? and What do we need to do differently than we're doing to more effectively offer people a place to belong?

Hoping your August good news is even better!

Marsha

[Pete Vecchi]

Unlike Diane, I love statistics. And with church statistics, it's always fascinating to look at the people behind the numbers.

Not counting people from other churches who were part of our VBS or came to hear the district IMPACT team, we had at least 127 local people walk through the doors in July -- 12 of them there specifically for VBS, three more for the IMPACT team. We have an average attendance of around 65. I'm supposed to be in charge of the Outreach Committee for the year, but my message is that the outreach we're already doing is amazingly effective. If we could find a way to incorporate the people who walk through our doors in the course of a year we would have no need for additional intentional outreach events. Thus, my "outreach" focus is on Why do they come? and Why don't they stay? and What do we need to do differently than we're doing to more effectively offer people a place to belong?

Hoping your August good news is even better!

Marsha

That's great! Speaking of getting people to "walk through the doors", our numbers don't count the people who "walk through the doors" to pick up the free Panera bread products we distribute from the church on Monday evenings. I didn't get an official "count", but just yesterday we had at least a dozen people "walk through the doors" to get some bread products. The majority of them have been coming in almost every week--or at least 2 or more times a month. In the approximately 2 1/4 years we've been providing this service, it really hasn't translated into a lot of "new people" becoming involved in the congregation (maybe about 3 VERY "part-timers"--none of whom were able to participate in any of our services or "Sunday School/Bible Studies" in July), but just yesterday (as an example), one of the men who has been coming in to get bread at least once or twice a month over the past several months specifically stopped and talked to me about some of his life issues--something he's talked with me about before. There have been several people who have talked to me about things such as this during the bread distribution time. Last week, two people specifically asked me questions about the way the public was treating the man who killed and wounded all those people in the Colorado theater, and what the church's understanding (or at least what my understanding as a pastor) was about how Christians should deal with a person who committed such horrendous acts.

I've come to realize that the numbers we report from our congregation's structured meeting times don't always reflect how Jesus is touching people (and how many people He is touching) through the local congregation.

[Mike Schutz]

When folks say "We measure the things that really matter to us," I take that as a challenge to figure out ways to help folks see our congregational "kingdom footprint" in our community. The easiest thing to measure is the folks that show up at our worship service, but that is less than 25% of the people who are ministered to on our campus each week. Even more significant are the people who are touched in meaningful, kingdom ways by our folks as they live their regular lives. Of course, our job is to equip them for this ministry.

Pete, as you share the story of your people, it is exciting to think that, each week, those who come on Sunday are then better equipped to make a difference on Monday. As they grow, they see more opportunities and are better equipped to bless those they touch each week. Helping them to think of the multiples of folks God brings in their path each day is a blessing and a challenge to them, and may help you (as it does me) when, as their pastor, you occasionally get discouraged by the lack of sustained numerical grow in Sunday worship attendance.

[Jim Chabot]

Wow! Sounds exactly like our church! It is unreal how the normal ebb and flow of folks attending creates big highs and deep lows.

Under Edit, Well maybe not, after reading your other thread. We have only had one person leave since I've been there, and he moved to Florida. Everyone we do have is loving and welcoming, wouldn't want to see a single one head for the door. Although the history is of bitter cold, and according to our Pastor and the handy charts at the research center, those cold ones left about five years ago.

Just noticed something. The "other thread" was Roy's thread. Ignore the "under edit" remark, I was confused.

[David Graham]

When folks say "We measure the things that really matter to us," I take that as a challenge to figure out ways to help folks see our congregational "kingdom footprint" in our community. The easiest thing to measure is the folks that show up at our worship service, but that is less than 25% of the people who are ministered to on our campus each week. Even more significant are the people who are touched in meaningful, kingdom ways by our folks as they live their regular lives. Of course, our job is to equip them for this ministry.




Pete, as you share the story of your people, it is exciting to think that, each week, those who come on Sunday are then better equipped to make a difference on Monday. As they grow, they see more opportunities and are better equipped to bless those they touch each week. Helping them to think of the multiples of folks God brings in their path each day is a blessing and a challenge to them, and may help you (as it does me) when, as their pastor, you occasionally get discouraged by the lack of sustained numerical grow in Sunday worship attendance.

Now that is a challenge..... an extremely necessary requirement but one which I think is hard to quantify?

We average between 75 and 105 at our main town church on sunday mornings having hit around 140 twice at "regular" services through-out the year. At irregular services such as funerals our largest service accommodated about 300 people. (We actually had a video link to the church hall for that one...... our sanctuary only holds about 150 people)

During the week however, our regular programmes at the church only minister to about 60 people, although off campus we would pick up another 40 to 60 people in other regular activities. (RE in school, Nursing home, retirement village, private home bible study, and drug rehabilitation facility)

I encourage our elders to visit the parishoners assigned to them and I myself average about 5 parishoner home visits each week.

So we are touching conservatively 110 people outside of our services every week, not counting the other personal contacts between parishoners and themselves and their neighbours. Still, I'd like us to do better. Our greatest weakness is that we don't contact enough younger families, and our average age demographic is around 60.