Small Group World

09.07.10

My Interview with Boyd Pelley, Small Groups Analytics I, Why Analytics are Essential

One of my favorite guys in the small group space is Boyd Pelley. Boyd spearheads Churchteams.com, an on-line analytics website for churches doing groups. I once mentioned to Boyd just how important his role in the small group world was. I said it this way, "Without record-keeping we wouldn't know what was really going on." Over the next few minutes Boyd schooled me on the difference between "analytics" and "record-keeping." When he had finished I realized that every small group ministry that wants to flourish needs a strategic plan for gaining information about every group and using that information to reach optimal effectiveness.

This is the first in a series of four blog posts, my interview with Boyd. Hang on. You're about to realize a tool, that if used correctly, may take your small group ministry to the next level.

Rick: Boyd many people know you as the guy who helps them analyze their small group ministry. They may not realize that you are a small group expert. Would you tell everyone what your background is?

Boyd: For 18 years I served on church staffs in New Mexico, Nebraska, and Texas. My job titles varied from adult education to discipleship to administration to family pastor. Early on I realized the value of thinking about and organizing every ministry from a small group or team perspective. It makes administration more streamlined and brings alignment across the organization which serves both staff and volunteers well. I learned ministry in a small groups / discipleship atmosphere on college campuses and brought that experience and commitment to the church. I have had the privilege of learning from the best thinkers, consultants and authors on small groups in the last 40 years. Each one has influenced my thinking in some way. My primary spiritual gift is shepherding, not administration. This tool grew out of a pastor's heart that is passionate about doing a better, more effective job of caring for and discipling people. It became reality thanks to Mark Horan; my partner, co-founder and the software architect. He influences and owns this thing at least as much as I do.

Rick: You once said, "I believe analytics will do for ministry in the next ten years what the arts did for worship the past twenty." That's a huge statement. What has driven you to believe this statement to be true?

Boyd: When I think back to what church was like in the 70's and 80's, you could pretty much go to any church and you knew how it was going to work. There were three songs, announcements, a music special, communion (depending on the church) and then the sermon. When we opened up the church to the arts and began having worship bands with guitar solos, drama, dance, poetry, and video projectors showing printed art, media and sermon support images; worship changed. There was new life to what was happening on Sundays. Sunday began to relate to the rest of our week much better.

Of course, not everyone saw that the same way and the last twenty years have been filled with debate, discussion and a lot of change in churches. It has been a huge revolution in the church and I honestly think that analytics will do the same thing on the ministry side.

Right now, we can track and provide for staff the analytics that show the relative health of each group: healthy, normal, at-risk. This helps pastors better focus their ministry efforts where it is most needed. Very soon, we will be able to do the same thing for individuals helping them pay more attention to their spiritual growth goals and making leadership much more aware of the state of their flocks.

The discussion of the role of numbers and metrics in church life has been around a very long time. We engage in that discussion all the time. But, with the way technology has advanced, I believe we can revolutionize ministry and ministry leadership efforts. I relate it to Luke 15. The shepherd didn't count to brag. He counted so that he could clearly see the need and focus his efforts where it would make the most difference. This is our Father's heart and we should do everything we can with today's technology to reflect that same heart.

Rick: So with churchteams.com a church can actually peer into every individual group utilizing churchteams.com to know where they need to be strengthened so that that group doesn't die. Is that correct?

Boyd: Yes, it is. A quick story.

Damon is a friend of mine in Seattle using Churchteams. He's a master black belt six sigma expert who volunteered to lead a small group ministry in a church of about 250. In the summer of 2008, he called me and said, "Boyd I'm concerned about the health of my groups. Would you say that a healthy group trusts each other?"

I said, "Sure. Absolutely."

And then he asked, "Isn't trust, by definition, a function of consistency?"

I thought about that and said, "Sure. I trust you because you've consistently been there for me."

He asked, "Can you measure consistency?"

I said, "Yes, that's just attendance over time."

"So," he asked, "From your experience, what degree of consistency would you identify a group as healthy?"

Without much thought and based on 18 years of experience, I said, "I guarantee that any typical, off-campus, small group of 6-12 that averages 80% consistency is healthy."

"What about an at-risk group?"

Again, very quickly I answered, "Any group not averaging 50% probably has some issues that need to be addressed."

Well he took that, used the data we gave him and put it together for his groups. He called me up. "Boyd, I've got 12 groups. I know all 12 leaders. I know everybody in all 12 groups. What I didn't know is I have 5 healthy groups, 4 in between, and 3 are at risk."

He said, "So I decided to go to those 3 and test our hypothesis. All three of them, when I began asking the right questions, had issues that we needed to work on to restore them to health."

And he said, "Boyd I would have never known that without the analytics."

And that conversation began a huge learning curve for me and for Churchteams on how to use and present the data we had learned to collect from 2004 to 2007 in the most effective way to help pastors shepherd well.