A lapsed donor is someone who used to give consistently to your church but has stopped.  Since giving data is generally the most accurate data in your database, it's relatively easy to measure.

You guys, email is not dead!  Sure, texting is emerging (we have you covered there) and social messaging and apps are vying for attention, but check out this stat in the Hubspot article, The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2021.

Your birthday is a pretty big deal on Facebook.  If you use it a lot (or a little), you get to hear from dozens or hundreds of friends and family.  Even if you know that all they did was click a link or take 30 seconds to jot a note, it still makes you feel special.

Kids love getting mail, especially on their birthday.  Many children's ministries I know do a great job of making kids feel special by sending them a simple card on their day.

Last week in our Roundtable on Reports, we talked about different ways to use group reports.  If you're interested in more, here's the podcast.  It's Episode 13.

Typically, you probably think of group reports as enrollment rosters or group attendance.  Of course, those are important because they help you see how well the ministry is doing.  But, data can also be a life-saver for dealing with two challenges that every church faces during this season of the ministry year.  Let's personalize those and see how group reports can come to the rescue.

If you've ever created reports in software, you know that it can be challenging.  So, last week we started our fall Rountable on the topic of reports.  Check out episode 12 in the Roundtable Podcast to view the entire briefing.

A few weeks ago, in a blog post entitled Groups consistency, I talked about using attendance as a sign that points to faithfulness.  And faithfulness is a pre-requisite character quality for choosing leaders who multiply the ministry.  (2 Timothy 2:2)

In the same way, attendance is a sign for pastors and church staff that something may be going on in a person's life they are called to shepherd.

In discipleship discussions, we often quote 2 Timothy 2:2 as a pillar text for understanding discipleship that multiplies disciples.  The idea, of course, is that Paul invested in training Timothy and was encouraging him to invest in other people who would invest in others.  

Notice the adjective that Paul uses to describe the people in whom Timothy was to invest his time.  Depending on your translation, the word is generally reliable (NIV, NLT), or faithful (ESV, NASB, KJV).  It is someone in whom you trust.

Matthew 6:21 says, "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  So, one sign of how much an individual or family treasures your church is their giving.  

Because it was the week before Christmas and because of the craziness of Covid, you might have missed the biggest release of 2020.  I introduced it as our Digital Assistant - Scheduled Reports.  That was just over two months ago.  There wasn't a lot of fanfare, we just offered it quietly as a gift.