Worship & Discipleship Reporting Policy/Procedure
The purpose of counting disciples in the local church is to measure the effectiveness of your effort to make Christlike disciples, thereby fulfilling the purpose of NDI. It is an important tool for evaluating and determining future changes and/or training opportunities.
Monthly reports are due a week and a half after the last Sunday of the month. Please submit this form according to the guidelines available for calculating weekend worship and discipleship averages.
Worship Service Statistics
Please use the following guidelines for calculating your weekend worship numbers.
Note: Churches should indicate onsite and online attendance separately when reporting monthly worship attendance.
Weekend In-Person Worship
This total should include the average number of people who physically attended your regular weekend services.
If you have multiple services, please count people once.
Weekend Livestream Worship
Please use the following guidelines for counting online attendance:
- A team member should be available to serve as an online "greeter" and be able to engage those who are watching.
- Provide an opportunity for viewers to fill out a virtual connection card for the purpose of engaging them in the life of your church.
- Provide a way for people to respond to the service by sharing prayer requests or setting up a time to connect with a staff member in the following weeks.
Check the stats for each platform by the end of the weekend for each service you have.
- Church Online Platform: Peak concurrent number of devices x 2 = total viewers
- Streaming Provider (embedded website platforms such as Churchstreaming.tv): Total concurrent viewers during service times x 2 = total viewers
- Facebook: Peak live views x 2 = total viewers
- YouTube: Peak concurrent views x 2 = total viewers
- Other: If your platform does not provide peak concurrent views, count the users that remain connected at least 50% (or 30 minutes) of the livestreamed gathering.
Take the total number from each platform you offer to calculate your average weekend worship online attendance.
Keep in mind that we're trying to capture the number of people who watched and/or participated in a service online during your service times. Please do not report the numbers of those who watch/re-watch during the week.
*NEW* On-Demand Online Worship
This category is designed to celebrate the ministry impact churches have beyond their weekend services, including wherever services are watched (or listened to) outside of your normal, weekly livestream.
Formats include--and are not limited to--social media and podcasts such as Spotify, Apple, Anchor, etc. Once again, we're looking for users that watch/listen to at least 50% (or 30 minutes) of the recording.
Numbers should be collected no later than a week after your livestream or podcast. (Example: Views for a recording from Sunday's service would be counted through the following Saturday.)
Disregard using this category if your platform does not currently provide the number of views after the livestream.
Discipleship Count Average
Please use the following guidelines for calculating your discipleship numbers. Note: Individuals should only be counted once per week.
Sunday Morning Classes
Report the number of people you have attending discipleship classes (or Sunday School) on Sunday morning.
Midweek Ministries
Report the number of people who attended your midweek ministries at the church. (Examples: Wednesday night adult, youth, or children's ministries)
REMINDER: We only want to count disciples once per week, so if they attended a Sunday morning class, you should not include them in your midweek ministries count.
Small Groups
Report the number of people who attended your small group ministry.
REMINDER: Please do not include individuals that were already counted in your Sunday morning classes or midweek ministries.
Other
Report the number of people you have attending the following: Nursing Home/Healthcare Facility, Church-Type Missions, Nazarene Childcare/Schools (birth thru secondary), or a Bible study held offsite on a regular basis.
Please do not include those who attended Sunday Morning Classes, Midweek Ministries, or Small Groups.
Special Events & Annual Services
We want to celebrate “out of the box” ministries churches utilize in order to minister to their community. These are outreach events that do not happen on a weekly basis and may only happen once a year (i.e., Christmas- and Easter-related events, Vacation Bible School, Revivals, New Years Eve, 30-hour famines, and special creative events).
This is the section you will use to report these numbers along with numbers collected for annual services (Christmas Eve, Maundy/Thursday services, etc.)
Accountability Care List (ACL)
This list could be seen as the total number of people you are currently ministering to and/or those listed in your church database. It can include anyone who attends services or is otherwise within the ministry sphere of your church, as well as families or individuals you have contact information for, regardless of whether they attend services (or engage in discipleship efforts) regularly in person or online.
REMINDER: If individuals are included in your discipleship count, then they must be in your Accountability Care List.