One of the most important aspects of church management is monitoring church growth and find a way to reach as many people as possible.
In this post, we will discuss 7 reasons why you need to take attendance in your church.
Why should you take attendance in your church?
Numbers are just as important in church as they are to regular businesses. It is important to know how many people attend each service. These figures are instrumental in growing your ministry. We will discuss a few reasons why you need to start taking attendance in your church in this section.
Monitor church growth
How would you monitor church growth if you aren’t taking numbers? It is impossible to monitor growth by merely looking at the pews to check if they are full. You need real figures to determine if your church is growing or not.
Asides from the overhead count, the numbers reveal the demographics of your church. As such, you can tell how many women, men, and children attend your church. This number helps you to plan the appropriate programs for your congregation.
Members’ spiritual health
Of course, the number of individuals coming to church is not an indication of spiritual health. However, when your numbers are dwindling, you can tell that something is not right with their spiritual health. A significant drop in numbers tells you that something is lacking in your church.
As such, you can reach out to members no longer frequent services to ask for their reasons. It also shows you that you need to invest more in the spiritual growth of your congregation. This is called efficient congregation management.
Numbers reveal patterns and trends
As a leader in the church, one of the responsbilities you will be saddled with making decisions. The quality of your choices will influence your congregation and ministry positively or negatively.
One of the easiest ways to make decisions is by gathering knowledge about patterns and trends. When you take attendance in your church, you have access to both. Attendance goes beyond telling how many people came to church. It also shows you different patterns from which you can draw trends.
Gathering and utilizing this information is easier with a church management software like ChurchPad. With this information, you can begin to make more educated and calculated decisions. Of course, each decision must be subject to instruction from the Holy Spirit.
Accuracy rather than guesswork
Many churches operate on guesswork which they refer to as “intelligent guesses.” Guessing may bring you close, but will not always achieve the goal.
As a church leader, you need to work with accurate facts rather than guesswork. Taking attendance helps you to gather facts about your congregation instead of working with guesses. With accurate figures, it is easier to arrive at decisions. It also helps you to prepare for future growth.
Monitor the welfare of members
When your church isn’t so large, you can quickly notice if an individual or a family isn’t present. With steady growth, it might be difficult to pinpoint such absentees. How then can you tell if individuals come to church or not?
The simple answer is taking attendance. It is important to reach out to individuals who are not present for services, especially if they aren’t in their nature. They are probably going through a rough patch, physically, emotionally, health-wise, or financially.
Reaching out to them shows them that you care. It could be all the encouragement they need to get back on their feet. Sometimes, they need help and support. Even if your church isn’t able to offer all that they need, you can be there for them. It is impossible to achieve all of this if you don’t take attendance.
Helps in planning programs
A lot of effort goes into planning programs. You want to know who is coming and who isn’t. This information will help you determine what provision you need to make.
A very easy way to get such information is by taking attendance in your church regularly. The information from your attendance records shows you who is likely to attend the program and who isn’t. It also gives you an idea of how much supplies you need to get ready. You can’t afford to waste resources, and taking attendance will save you from doing that.
Objectivity
As church leaders, we must agree that we are also humans. This means that we sometimes make decisions based on emotions, not objectivity. Doing this does not profit the church and results in poor decisions.
Objectivity helps you to see things the way they are so that you can make the right decisions. It even influences your church communication. How do you attain this objectivity? Several methods, including the numbers from your attendance records.
Numbers don’t lie. They are objective and carry no emotions. When you work with numbers, it is always easier to achieve better results.
How to take church attendance
Once upon a time, taking attendance in the church was a challenging task. Today, we have several methods. Check a few out below:
Church app
With a church app like ChurchPad, taking attendance is pretty easy. The preacher can simply ask all the congregants to fill in the member card on the app during service.
Check-in points
You can set up electronic check-in points at different locations in the church. For children that can’t access the church management software, a children check-in point is a brilliant idea. Connect the check-in point to your church database for easy data collection.
Sign-in books
You can always have a book at the entrance where members can fill in their details before services. However, this is time and effort-consuming.
Conclusion
Taking attendance in church is very important. We have shown you several reasons why you should and a few ways to do this. Check out the ChurchPad app to find several tools to grow your congregation.