Churches thrive off the congregation, and a great way to measure the liveliness of a congregation is by their engagement and connection. This can range anywhere from how many people attend worship on Sunday to the number of people actively participating in small groups. The problem is that engagement and connection can appear in a variety of different forms and in turn can be difficult to measure. 

Churches have long struggled to quantify the impact of their church and it has only gotten harden because of pandemic related shutdowns.  How can you quantify the impact of God on a person’s soul?    While some people are vocal about their emotions, a number of other people tend to keep their emotions inward.  One’s true heart is between oneself and the Lord.  Measuring this impact is a very difficult task.   

Measuring impactful connections provides a foundational metric for church leaders to gauge the impact of their vision.  Worshipping together – in person – has long provided the implicit connection within the congregation.  All present can see who they are connecting to at that point of time.  Facial expressions, body language, energy in the room are all the human cues to show the impact of that connection.  If the hymns are quiet, and heads are nodding sleepily during the sermon – these are the cues picked up by others present as to the connections being made.  The human brain processes all these interactions to create the connected experience. 

With the absence of in-person worship and the intuitive connections made, technology is showing how to quantify these connections.  Number of views of a Youtube video, number of likes on a post, number of comments made – these are direct representations as to the impact of a connection.  

 With a good social media network, particularly a private social network, deeper analysis and data is available that can paint a broad picture of life within the Church.  Seeing how many people saw a post, in addition to how many clicked like, can show the full extent of the connections made.  Oftentimes, only 10% of people that see a post take the action to like the post.  Knowing the number of ‘passive’ connections is just as powerful as knowing the ‘active’ connections. 

Used effectively, new engagement tools can replicate the in-person experience of gauging the level of connection. This gives church leaders the opportunity and input needed to paint a full picture of the level of engagement within their congregation.  

-Tom