Throughout scripture, we see that belonging to a community is an essential part of God’s design for us. We can see the blueprint in the biblical account of creation found in Genesis. In Chapter 1, we read that everything that God creates, he declares as good. But something unsettling happens in Chapter 2: God declares that “it’s not good for the man to be alone.” It seems that God created people with a longing for a relationship with God AND other people. The theme of community continues throughout the New Testament; it’s where all the “one anothers” come to life.
The need for community is why so many churches emphasize belonging to a group. Instead of looking at the back of a stranger’s head each Sunday, groups allow people to connect, engage, grow in knowledge, deepen their faith, and serve God and each other. In short, it’s a primary way that discipleship happens in many churches. While the studies and statistics vary, most agree that healthy, growing churches often have 50% – 80% of their Sunday attendance involved in some type of group or community. These statistics make tracking the number of groups and attendance essential when gauging your church’s effectiveness at discipleship and engagement.
What Tracking Groups Isn’t
Tracking Group attendance isn’t a way to put a preference on the way people connect or engage. Churches must expand their definition beyond the typical “Growth Group” model and measure all the various ways people in the church are engaged. Like Bible studies, care groups (think Divorce Care or Grief Share), and common interest groups (think groups that regularly meet to walk, sew, craft, or play a sport). Many serving opportunities within the church, like the worship team, behave like a group. When determining what to include in the “group” count, each church should establish the criteria as to what defines a group. For example, some churches may want only to include groups that spend time in prayer and demonstrate a level of care for one another.
What To Measure
There are three main components to measuring groups – the number of groups, the number of people in the groups, and the number attending each group weekly. There’s no question that having a good ChMS (Church Management System) makes tracking groups easier. Even with a ChMS, measuring church group data requires organization and creating a culture that empowers volunteer leaders to track attendance.
Groups: Depending upon your church’s size and number of groups, creating a structure may seem unnecessary; it isn’t. Organizing groups in categories that follow the church’s structure is an investment in getting better data later. What does that mean? Think of it like folders with sub-folders. Start with the church’s group categories, such as growth groups, study groups, serve groups, affinity groups, care groups, etc. Then, add the groups (sub-folders) that fit within those parent folders. For example, DivorceCare and GriefShare fall nicely within the Care Groups folder. This structured approach allows the church to easily determine the total number of all groups and quickly determine how many growth groups, study groups, etc., the church offers.
Group Enrollment: Once the church establishes a group structure, it’s time to fill the groups with the people enrolled in the group. Enrollment is different than attendance. Attendance counts those who show up for each meeting; enrollment counts everyone in the group regardless of attendance. Pro Tip: differentiate the leader(s) from the participants.
Group Attendance: Each time the group meets, the group leader needs to track attendance for each person who shows up.
Measurement Frequency
As with many church metrics, gathering the data each time the group meets provides the church with accurate records to determine the effectiveness and engagement of the group.
Comparisons
Gathering group attendance is only half the battle; churches need a way to input and use the data to give it meaning. Here are a few ways to use group data:
- Percentage of people enrolled in groups vs. average weekly attendance: Studies and surveys show that growing, healthy churches provide small groups and have a high (80% or more) percentage of participation when compared to the average weekly adult attendance. Is it possible to have a higher rate (over 100%) enrolled in groups than the average adult weekend service attendance? Yes. Some people are involved in multiple groups, increasing the percentage, while others may only go to a group without ever attending a weekend service. If group enrollment is lower than 50% of adult weekend attendance, it’s time for your church to evaluate its low engagement and discipleship strategy. Churches should use this data to determine the type of groups (small group, study group, etc.) that appeal to the church.
- Percentage of people attending groups vs. average weekly attendance: Comparing enrollment shows intention and desire to engage, but tracking attendance shows commitment. Using this metric helps to identify if a particular group is gaining or losing momentum during the group’s lifecycle.
- Total number of people participating in groups: Create pie charts to show the number of people in each group type – Growth Groups, Study Groups, Affinity Groups, Care Groups, etc. Is there an imbalance that needs attention? Maybe a particular curriculum isn’t resonating with the church while others do. Perhaps there’s a leadership issue in a specific area. Charting this data provides a visual that makes it easy to identify the potential problems or successes, allowing church leaders to dig deeper into the “why.”
- Total number of unique attendees: It’s common for some people to attend multiple groups. For this metric, regardless of how many groups a person attends, only count them once and show the total number participating in church groups.
Healthy, growing churches emphasize engagement and community, providing groups as the primary vehicle for fulfilling this need.
Measuring groups and group attendance provides the essential data to help determine engagement in the church.
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