{"id":24739,"date":"2026-03-25T13:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greaternw.org\/news\/?p=24739"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:31:06","slug":"rethinking-how-we-track-online-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greaternw.org\/news\/rethinking-how-we-track-online-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking (how we track) online worship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I recently spent a few minutes reviewing church statistics. While curiosity had drawn me to look at the numbers of a specific church, what I noticed in this congregation was replicable in the numbers of several other congregations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have an online worship problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me be clear about what I’m not<\/em> saying. Online worship is one of the few gifts we received from the pandemic. It provides another way for people looking for a faith community to get a sense of what our churches have to offer. It helps our churches stay connected with members who have fluctuating work schedules or spend part of the year in a warmer climate. And it gives us a way to offer a worship experience to members who are shut-in or dealing with a temporary illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our problem isn\u2019t online worship itself. Our problem is how we count it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, our United Methodist end-of-year statistical reports began offering online worship attendance as an option alongside in-person attendance tracking. Here is the wording that accompanies question 7a in the statistical reports:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAverage number of persons who worship online<\/strong><\/em> – Report here average weekly number of unique viewers who access worship online. This includes those live streaming your worship service and views\/downloads of recorded worship services (audio or video), sermons, and\/or podcasts. Do not include generic hits\/visits to your website.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem isn\u2019t the question so much as the vagueness in which it is asked. Back in 2020<\/a>, we started sharing guidance from others in the connection to help churches get a better sense of what to count as meaningful online engagement. I continue to share a version of what follows when I speak with church leaders on this topic (emphasis<\/strong> mine).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor online views, count anyone listening online for whom the church has evidence of participation. This can be done through an online check-in process<\/strong> or through analytic software<\/strong> associated with your streaming platform. Confirm that the analytics demonstrate that the person viewed the worship for a significant portion<\/strong>. Create a standard and stick to it consistently. Be aware that some platforms\u2019 analytics \u2013 like Facebook \u2013 will even count someone scrolling by as a hit. You should filter down to those who \u201cattended\u201d a significant portion of your stream.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In talking with church leaders, I\u2019m surprised to learn that few have developed an online check-in process. Some do this well, but others rely solely on the analytics provided by the platform they use, most often Facebook or YouTube. Additional conversations sometimes reveal that they are using the easiest-to-access numbers, meaning they are significantly overcounting online attendees by including people who see their worship for mere seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, this wouldn\u2019t be a problem if we only captured these online numbers as a curiosity. But in some ways, they can obfuscate data trends we should be paying closer attention to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, UMData, the website that provides church statistics for the denomination, combines in-person and online data when presenting its top-line Average Worship Attendance stats. So, for 2024, this had churches in the PNW Conference<\/a> with an aggregate average attendance of 15,127. This number doesn\u2019t feel far off from the 16,597 (combined) reported in 2019. In fact, you could even say it speaks to our resiliency in recovering from the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem, however, lies in the ratio. In 2019, online worship attendees accounted for just shy of 7% of the total average worship attendance in the PNW. In 2024, online attendance makes up over 38%. Again, I\u2019m not opposed to online attendance, provided we arrive at accurate numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at other statistics, we may need to review our online numbers more closely. While they aren\u2019t closely tied to average worship attendance, membership numbers continued to decline steadily on a familiar curve from 2019 to 2024. Over this span, PNW Conference churches lost over 25% of their membership, dropping from 34,734 to 25,978. The rates of baptisms and of those joining by profession of faith are off by a similar proportion, as are the numbers participating in mission and community outreach ministries. Sunday School attendance is down by 62%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n