What is the Role of Data in Church?

Hey,

Tyler here.

It’s the busiest time of the year for the church. As Christmas season plans firm up and end-of-year giving campaigns roll out, here are the latest updates from Apollos to help you keep your church technology on point in the months ahead.

Let’s start with an update from the Church3.0 podcast. This morning, we released a special episode with guest Matt Welty, Director of the Studio at Crossroads Church.

We’ve worked with Crossroads for over a decade, and Matt came on to talk about Apollos’ new custom SaaS partnership. I’m excited about this new step with Crossroads and the potential it holds for so many other digital church initiatives and relationships to come.

Check out the conversation below (or click HERE).

I’ve been thinking about the role of data in church lately. Data doesn’t have an opinion. It just states (some of) the facts. Are you listening?

If you see that very few people watch your sermons online all the way through, is that failure, or is it your data telling you something about what your people need when they watch online?

There are a lot of vanity metrics and hollow goals out there. And then there are measurements that matter. I’m talking about things like engagement, shares, and comments that reflect real-life change. Those are gold.

Don’t let your data control you. Use it to clarify what you know. Then take action.

Change is constant. Things are only changing faster, too. You might be feeling the pressure that comes from constantly thinking ahead.

I recommend checking out the latest episode of The Church3.0 Podcast. This time, I took a different approach from the church leadership interview by tracking down a leadership consultant.

Ann Eileen Thompson knows her stuff. She operated at a high level as a former Procter & Gamble market researcher. When we sat down to record an episode, we used that knowledge to talk about change in the church.

The coolest part? The conversation wasn’t just about change management. It was about curiosity. We looked at how staying curious fuels humility and transforms leadership.

Ann brought some great market principles and lessons from business to the table, and we looked at how church leaders can use these corporate America concepts to build trust and stay relevant in the post-COVID church.

Check out the conversation here:

As always, the Apollos blog continues to be a great spot to find inspiration and build your church technology strategy.

For now, I want to highlight a piece on Daily Habits. This is a major part of the Apollos platform. If you want to shift church from a weekend activity to a daily one, you have to start with foundational activities like prayer, reading the Bible, and practicing gratitude. You also have to find ways to build these habits with others in your church community.

You can read more about what it looks like to develop daily habits (with a ton of real-world examples) and what steps you can take to start that process in your own church here:

If you have any topics you want to see covered on the blog, reach out with your ideas.

Every update we make is about helping churches like yours connect with your people. Here are the latest updates already at your fingertips.

You can learn more about these updates in detail here:

We’re always working to improve the platform and help you engage with your people more easily all week long. Keep following the newsletter to hear the latest.

Also, if you have any recommendations or feedback, hit reply or send a message through our support form.

That’s it this time. Watch out for more updates heading into the fall. We’ll also have more resources available soon, including podcasts and articles featuring insider insights on the world of church technology.

Thank you for your continued partnership with Apollos and for being an active part of this community.

Let’s keep building.