As I mentioned in my post, 3 Back Door Ministry Metrics, it’s better to focus on engaging as soon as someone becomes less active rather than after they’ve left altogether.
That being said, this post is more about tracking member losses after the fact – they’ve left the church. Again, you can’t improve in a given area if facts are not being tracked and reported.
The metric here is the Member Churn Rate. I’ve seen these anywhere from 10 to 30+ percent.
What’s yours?
Before you get started, it makes sense to review the membership roles bi-annually and move people that haven’t been there in the last 6 months to an in-active status as a first step (and thus count as a loss). If you’ve not seen them in 6 months (outside of being home-bound, death or having moved), chances are they’re not coming back. Waiting 1, 2 or more years to remove them just covers up the fact they’ve already left. Thus the reporting is not accurate and the further behind you are.
You may want to do an initial cleanup say of everyone not currently active as a first step. Do what makes sense for your church.
Once you have your first report, bump the list of ‘members lost’ against the member database notes taken when you ministered to them earlier. (When they slowed/stopped – small group, serving and/or giving). You’ll come out of that with some reasons as to why they’re no longer coming. Categorize them.
The challenge will be to gather the why behind everyone else. Gather staff to go over the list – they know a lot of times or can surmise. Otherwise – send their Deacon, call, text, email, or send survey they can return anonymously, etc. Minister to them as you have the opportunity to.
Two Things Happen:
- As a result of contacting and ministering to them, they make come back as you show them you really care.
- By focusing on any recurring themes or issues from the ‘loss’ analysis, you can make changes as deemed appropriate.
That’s how you use Member Churn Rate to make things better.