80% attendance of what?

I'll confess, up until last Sunday, I hadn't been to church since late January. With a heavily pregnant wife and the idea of wrangling my toddler alone unappealing, it took a while to get back in the saddle.

But I don't think anyone would hold that against me. In fact, I contacted the minister just to reassure him that we hadn't gone to another church!

Because...
Pregnant wives + cranky toddlers + new births + non-vaccinated babies = less attendance.

But the last month has got me thinking about one of the measuring sticks I used for attendance (which I wrote about here).

One of my markers was for 80% attendance.

But, this figure requires a bit of tweaking.

Why? Because, for some, they will NEVER hit that number.

If a teen's parents are divorced and they spend half their weekends away with the other parent, then, realistically, they won't ever reach the magical 80%.

The same is true if a kid plays in a sports team that trains on a Friday night.
Or participates in a musical which removes them for weeks on end.

So, the 80% figure can't be so cut and dry.

Instead, the benchmark should be 80% of when they CAN attend.

If, instead of +32 out of 40 weeks, this is actually +23 of 30 weeks or +16 of 20 weeks, then, for that teen, this is the threshold that will help you determine their degree of connection, engagement and enthusiasm.