Year-end reports not just busy work

Every January, pastors and other congregational leaders are asked to complete year-end reports that track the experience of their churches during the previous 12 months. To the busy folks faced with completing the forms, the process can seem like little more than busy work. Given the limited amount of information collected, the year-end reports are limited in what they tell us about the state of our churches. But the information collected really does matter and especially now as Leadership Council is working on a vision plan for the coming 10 years.

So far from the 2009 reports, we’ve learned that small continues to be the norm for BIC churches with a median attendance figure of 92. The year-end reports tell us that the gap between attenders and members continues to widen and that overall Sunday school attendance is on a downward trend line. We also see that among the 80 plus churches reporting to date, the following are the five most often provided programs/activities: prayer groups (80%); community service (78%); Sunday school for children (76%); small groups (74%); and youth groups (72%). It’s too early to say what these things mean, but once all the reports are in, we’ll run the numbers again and look for patterns in the findings.

Review what we learned from the 2008 year-end reports »

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