Auditing

So... What are you going to do all week?

Like many youth ministers, I expect to hear that question a lot over Summer.

Around writing camp talks for a gig I've got in a few weeks, over the next few days (if my work computer and I get along) I'll do my end of year money and kid audits.

Like every church, we keep track of the coming and going of both cash and young people.

Why bother cracking out the spreadsheets and crunching the numbers?

The reason is simple.

Cold. Hard. Facts.

Numbers don't lie and within them you can find out where we went well, where the system failed and what went totally off the rails.

Additionally, you are able to adjust your advertising and expenditure with your eyes wide open.

Sometimes you can fall into the trap of thinking a kid is a regular, but you find out that they actually only darken the door once a term. Hopefully, you are surprised the opposite way and discover teens who you thought were flakie, were around much more than you remembered.

Finally, once you discover how much moolah is in the war chest (or lack of!) you can then look at what resources you can purchase and what kind of advertising you can produce.