Blog
Volunteer and Serving Reports in Planning Center Services
What Services actually shows you about volunteer health: scheduled vs declined, the matrix, blockouts, and how far you can get on serving frequency.
Michael Visser
7 Church Health Metrics Your Board Should See Every Month
The seven church health metrics a board should see monthly: what each measures, where each comes from in Planning Center, and what to do when it moves.
Michael Visser
How to Measure Member Engagement in Planning Center (Without Turning People Into Scores)
Engagement spans several Planning Center products: the manual method, five datasets in one workbook, and how to interpret it responsibly.
Michael Visser
First-Time Guest Tracking: The Two Numbers That Prove It Worked
First-time guest tracking in Planning Center: how to record a guest properly, and the two rates that matter. 48-hour follow-up and four-week return.
Michael Visser
Small Group Metrics: The Five That Tell You If Groups Are Working
Small group metrics worth tracking: participation rate, attendance consistency, group size, time-to-group, and where each lives in Planning Center.
Michael Visser
How to Measure Volunteer Engagement in Six Metrics
How to measure volunteer engagement: six metrics, the formula for each, and where Planning Center Services records the data it won't report back.
Michael Visser
Volunteers Don't Quit. They Stop Being Available.
How to measure volunteer engagement at church: Planning Center Services shows declines and blocked dates, not who is quietly on their way out.
Michael Visser
Church Attendance Trends: Telling Seasonality From Decline
Church attendance trends dip every summer. How to separate seasonal church attendance from real decline using same-week-last-year and rolling averages.
Michael Visser
How to Track Church Attendance: Five Methods, Ranked
How to track church attendance: clickers, Headcounts, Check-Ins stations, Groups and an analytics layer. What each costs and what each can answer.
Michael Visser
Church Metrics That Matter: The Nine Beyond Sunday Headcount
The church metrics that matter count people, not totals. Nine beyond Sunday headcount, how each is computed, and where they live in Planning Center.
Michael Visser
How to Find Out Who Stopped Coming to Your Church
Find out who stopped coming to church by comparing each household's attendance rhythm across two windows, not by watching your weekly total.
Michael Visser
Planning Center Reporting: What You Can't See (And Why It Matters)
Planning Center reporting is scoped to one product and one moment in time. Here are the five limitations that hide drift, and what to do about them.
Michael Visser