Tracking attendance at your church is an effective way to monitor church growth, assess member involvement, and gauge the potential flow of resources for the church.

Let's face it: a room full of churchgoers is a more encouraging scene than a half-filled, half-empty venue for a worship service. A declining attendance could have prompted you to press the emergency button and alert everyone that you need to do something about your church's poor attendance.

If checking attendance were as simple as identifying who's present or absent, then why are church leaders so concerned about tracking attendance at church? 

With that insight comes another question. If tracking attendance were a priority, why is it that many church leaders don't exactly know how to track church attendance? 

But here's something more intriguing. How do church leaders use the information they obtain by tracking attendance at church?

The answers to these pressing questions are some of the essential insights you should know about tracking attendance at church. 

This article is a practical guide to tracking attendance at your church. Outlined here are significant reasons you should keep track of this essential data. Finally, this five-point guide highlights the exact measures that church leaders need to take and find meaning in their church's attendance. 

Why Track Attendance at Your Church?

The importance of tracking attendance is all about understanding your church’s overall health. 

There's no direct way to know that a church is alive and growing other than to see if people have gathered in the name of Jesus. But, regardless of the season, one glance at the church's assembly can already tell a lot about the state of the church.

In fact, this is how most people recognized the growth of the earliest Church—by tracking attendance! 

Acts 2:41, 46-47 tell us how keeping track of the attendance foreshadowed more extraordinary things for the church.

"Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Suppose there was no mention of "three thousand were added," how would people have perceived the early Christian church then? Perhaps, it wouldn't have impacted non-believers to see something extraordinary stirring up among the people who assembled as the people of God. Maybe, other people wouldn't have believed in Jesus Christ. 

But here's the most crucial observation you must notice. The church's acknowledgment of an estimated attendance signified that the church was growing because the Lord added to their daily number. 

The church leaders and the people were aware that the number of Christians was increasing. All these happened despite the persecution they faced.

If the early Christian church leaders managed to keep track of attendance, then today's church leaders can certainly do even better because of all the advanced resources they can use.

As you can glean from Acts 2, these are some of the reasons that compel you to track church attendance as the early Christian church did:

• Awareness of church attendance leads to a better understanding of the people entrusted to your pastoral care.
• Attendance is a direct indicator of church growth and discipleship.
• Keeping track of attendance leads you to monitor the church's resources.

With these insights in mind, it's time to identify reliable steps you should take to track attendance at your respective churches.

How to Track Attendance at Your Church

Tracking church attendance should be simple and straightforward, but it must also provide depth about the church's health. Here are the six points to guide you in tracking attendance at your church:

1. Use a CRM. 

Using a CRM for churches like Tithe.ly People can help you stay organized and efficient when it comes to tracking attendance. A good CRM can help you look at how individual members are engaging with church and giving, which helps you to not only look at overall church/growth, but at individual engagement as well. 

To learn more about Tithe.ly People, click here. 

2. Set and articulate goals for tracking attendance 

Tracking church attendance must serve a greater purpose; it's not just a routine. 

As church leaders, it is your primary responsibility to set goals for tracking church attendance. Just like any other church activity, this particular endeavor takes inspiration from a church ministry. Sometimes, it may have been prompted because of inadequate data on church attendance.

Tracking church attendance can also help you achieve a specific church goal.    

Some of these goals you can establish on tracking church attendance could include but are not limited to:

• Using church attendance data as a benchmark for church growth.
• Having an outline of the process of collecting, organizing, presenting, and interpreting the gathered data.
• Identifying members' reasons for being present or absent at church.

Everything else follows from the goals you have set. That's why you must clarify your goals for checking attendance.

If you find it challenging to set goals for the church, 5 Goals Your Church Should Consider Setting this Year can provide you with some goal-setting inspiration.

3. Identify the attendance data you need to collect

Now that you have identified your goal in tracking church attendance, the next step is to determine the attendance data you must collect. 

Checking attendance isn't complicated, and most churches already have systems for collecting attendance data. However, knowing which member is present or absent or determining the percentage of the congregation present for the day may not be enough anymore.

Remember, you have a specific goal why you are monitoring attendance. Hence, you should identify specific data to help you achieve your goal.

For instance, you have specified that tracking church attendance will help benchmark church growth. With that, you may list the data that attendance significantly influences church growth like:

• Number of present church members and collected tithes
• The ratio of volunteers and members in every worship service
• How many worship services before a first-time churchgoer gets baptized at church
• Average 52-week attendance of small church groups
• Number of church members versus the actual number of givers

Don't be surprised by these details. It takes time and effort to understand your congregants. Their church attendance can tell you more information.  

4. Determine the method for tracking attendance

Here comes a more interesting step. How do you exactly track church attendance during a church event?

Traditional church attendance practices include signing up on a registration sheet at the church entrance and or doing a simple headcount during service. They're not wrong, but in some contexts, such methods can be inefficient, especially if you plan to analyze the collected data.

Today, churches can take advantage of the available digital technologies that collect church attendance data and analyze these details. These technological tools are specifically designed to be available within the church's vicinity to check attendance.  

Here are some examples of digital methods you can employ:

• Self-Check-In Stations

Self-check-in stations can be another method to track church attendance. Moreover, they can serve multiple purposes for the church members. They're simple but effective.

The typical setup at church during a Sunday service is that everyone has only one entrance and exit. When congregants arrive at church and observe the usual niceties at these hotspots, the main attendance booth gets too crowded. The lines get longer; people must wait until it's their turn. 

Having self-check-in stations can provide alternative locations for people to declare their attendance and offer their tithes. 

• Church Mobile App

With just a tap on their mobile phones, church members can already signify their presence at a particular church event through a mobile church app. 

Alternatively, your church's mobile app can generate a scannable QR code which the church members will present to the church ushers or Welcoming Committee. This is perhaps the most time-saving technique compared to most attendance-checking methods.

• Digital Attendance Logbook

For this example, let's presume you have already encoded the members' names and pertinent details on a digital server. Upon entering the church venue, the church member will select their profile and follow simple security protocols to verify that it's really them.

Other attendance checking options could include a biometric scan of the congregant's fingerprint or facial recognition. These digital methods are safe, efficient, and accurate compared to traditional methods.

The success of these digital methods largely rests on understanding the use of Church Management Software (ChMS) and how you can maximize it to track church attendance. 

5. Delegate personnel to track attendance

As a church leader, you're most likely busy with other vital tasks like sermon preparation and worship service. It’s better to delegate the tracking of church attendance to other leaders or volunteers who are aided by digital technologies. 

For example, the church has designed a hybrid of self-check-in stations and digital logbooks. It's best if other volunteers assist the church members in the selected methods for checking attendance.

You can also assign volunteers or leaders to spearhead different aspects of tracking church attendance. Some may focus on collecting data; others can assist in analyzing these details into meaningful information.

Aside from just being present at church, congregants can participate more, and you also learn to manage this dimension of church operations.

6. Deliver a report on key findings about church attendance

Tracking attendance at your church does not end with you. As the church leader, you are responsible for informing other church leaders and members about the church's health, as demonstrated in the attendance.

By informing other church members of the most salient details, everyone becomes aware of the church's growth, just like in Acts 2:41. 

More importantly, the members' awareness of the church's overall health can move them to respond positively to the church's call. 

To achieve such a feat, you may consider these reflection points:

• Did we meet the goal we established in tracking church attendance?
• What are the key findings about the church's attendance?
• How has our church attendance in ____ helped in _____?

Analyzing and reporting on this data will allow you and the church to make better decisions, particularly concerning the church's health.

Over to You

To see your church grow, you must track attendance at your church. This is not about policing church members if they're absent at a particular church event. Instead, church leaders must understand that tracking attendance is an act of love for the people God has placed in our care. 

If we truly love God's people, we check on them. We try to understand their reasons for going and not going to church. Above all, we want to see them grow with God through the church.

Track your church's growth and see it thrive by partnering with us today at Tithe.ly.