A conversation over lunch this week with a youth minister prompted me to reflect on the following…
Years ago a wise sage (he was actually younger but infinately wiser than me) taught me the value of tracking attendance at youth group, Sunday School, and pretty much anything in our ministry. He showed me a database of who had been coming to youth programs and who had not. He had people assigned to follow up
on those who had not been around. If a student missed two weeks in a row, a leader would be prompted to call them to see how they were doing. What was impressive was that his mega church had more than a thousand teens coming to programs each week and they took notice of who did not show up. They also had hundreds of volunteers working in student ministry. My context was a bit smaller. 75 in my high school Sunday school class, 85 or so on Tuesday night youth group and about 65 on Sunday night. So, I began to discreetly take attendance each week and in the weeks that I was too busy up front to do so, I had someone else do the task.
For me it was as simple as jotting down the names of who was there and then on Monday checking their names on the chart I had created. It was all pen and paper for me as we did not have a useful database program at my church back then. I began to look at who was tracking with us. What I discovered was helpful on so many fronts. For the first time I could really see on paper who our core group consisted of, who were fringe people, and much more. I quickly realized and exploited three realities that came from tracking attendance.
First, this was incredibly useful for for pastoral care. I created some artsy little note cards and each week wrote notes to people who missed groups just to tell them that we missed them and hope to see them next week. (email or texts would probably not be as personal by the way) When a student missed two weeks in a row I would make sure that someone followed up on them to see how they were doing. I had volunteers assigned to care for each year group by gender. This way it was not just me that missed them and communicated with them. I could write a lot of notes quickly and let the volunteers do the more time consuming task of being on the phone with kids. Not to mention, it gave leaders an opening for connecting with students. All this led to students feeling more cared about and helped make some irregulars more regular. We occasionally learned of pastoral needs that we would not have discovered otherwise. So, my attendance taking was to the benefit of the real needs of students.
Second, taking attendance helped for future planning. I saw the patterns of overall attendance at youth groups and could chart out the highs and lows. This helped us think through planning much more efficiently. When I planned the calendar for the year, I capitalized on when our strongest attendance took place. In the well attended seasons, I taught on things that students really needed to hear and when attendance was more sporadic, I taught on things that were more attractive. So for example, I might teach on the Sovereignty of God when attendance was normally high and teach on friendships when attendance was traditionally low. This way the most vital teaching was addressed to the largest crowd and the more fluff stuff was taught when numbers dwindled. It helped to bolster attendance in the low seasons. To put it in the terminology of educators, I taught “felt needs” when attendance was low. I also planned retreats at the start of high seasons. We knew that fall and winter drew the largest crowds. We did retreats at the start (or early into) each of these seasons and built on the momentum that they created. We worked really hard to get everyone on board with these retreats because we knew the relational momentum would be significant.
Third, it gave me bragging rights. Yes that sounds horrible, but I was able to share with key leaders and staff when our numbers were strongest. I have yet to meet a senior pastor who does not get excited to hear of numerical growth in the attendance of youth. So, in fall and winter staff meetings, I could boast of how many came to weekly meetings and events. In late spring and in summer I would report on stories of students lives being transformed. At the same time, and this could be a fourth reality actually, I also gained a sense of realistic expectations from tracking attendance. I could see patterns that were annual and know roughly how much attendance trailed off by the end of May or how much they jumped in September. Now I had data that showed me where we were year by year. I could in the lowest seasons share with church leaders that we were up by whatever percentage over a year ago and have their enthusiastic support even though numbers in May were always lower than September.
What a huge blessing it was to have that conversation with a sage who shared his database with me and encouraged me to track students attendance on a weekly basis! I honestly think it was one of the reasons I remained in my first high pressure position for almost ten years. It also helped me to be more pastoral ever since.
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