The ChMS Market

Where is the market for ChMS products?

Big thanks to Curtis Simmons of Fellowship Technologies for sharing some data on the US Church market.  Curtis was quick to point out that these aren't necessarily scientifically calculated numbers, but several sources have corroborated that the numbers make sense. (Standard disclaimers apply)

In short, there are a whole lot of churches, most of them small.

Church Statistics.  (based on Total Worship Attendance, TWA)
300,000 total US Churches (not including Catholic)
80%        249 or less TWA
18%        250-999 TWA
1.75%    1000-2999 TWA
0.25%    3000+ TWA

That means 98% of all churches, approximately 294,000 of 300,000, have under 1000 regular weekly attendance.  That doesn't sound so surprising.  What it also means is that only 6000 churches have attendance of 1000 or more.  That's a little surprising.  Only 750 churches have attendance of 3000 or more.  That would seem to match up with the Hartford Megachurch study, which identifies about 1400 churches of 2000 or more TWA. In short, the total number of large churches is rather small.  If you want to be in the Church Management Software business, or perhaps I should say if you want to make money in the church Management Software business, that's a challenge! (and let's all keep in mind -- if your vendors aren't making money, how long will they be your vendors?)

Another factor of the church market is the size of the church staff.  Various sources indicate that 70% of churches have a staff of exactly one (the pastor), or less! There are a lot of churches that have an entirely volunteer, or part-time, staff.

So, if you're trying to sell a ChMS that requires training, or multiple staff, or has any significant cost, then there just aren't very many potential customers out there.  If you're wanting to go the open source route, then there aren't many obvious developers, and the mass of churches who might use your product don't have a staff to even know you exist, and are probably very difficult to market to anyway?  (Quick, name the publication that all small and start-up churches read to find out about church management products)

How many quality, profitable, viable, Church Management companies can this market support?  Maybe that's part of why only a few seem to have any traction.

Comments

[Mattharrell]

Another question is how many quality, profitable, viable ChMS exist that currently have a solution that fits the single pastor church? If there are some out there, which clearly there are, is this "small church market" supporting it? It seems like it's not. In other words, they aren't using ChMS solutions. Can that be changed? Should it be?

What *is* the publication that you're referring to? Does it exist or not :O)? I don't know.

[TonyDye]

Matt, if that publication exists, I sure haven't found it. Maybe that says something -- you and I are actively looking for such a publication. Would the small church, pastor-only-staff, even be looking? Unfortunately, probably not. How do we get small church leaders to even think about the technology tools they need? Of course, ask the same question for leadership, marketing, presentation skills, communications, and on and on. All that boring 'business' stuff that's not covered at seminaries.

[GordonMarcy]

The church statistics are consistent with what I've heard anecdotally from church leaders as well.

Tony, you and Matt have hit on a topic that it seems church leaders do not discuss openly. The problems associated with selecting and implementing a ChMS is symptomatic of a larger problem.

This is just my opinion. In virtually every church, except for perhaps 1% of all churches regardless of size, there are pastors and board members that have not made it a priority to define church business excellence. At best, there may be a few such members on the board. At worst, a majority aren't knowledgeable about the criteria used to characterize business excellence, i.e. leadership, policies, processes, technologies, strategies, people, etc. Without a clear understanding of the criteria, leadership has no way to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses or identify opportunities for improvement.

The consequences of this problem are many. Pastors and board members that don't really understand business excellence voting to purchase a ChMS is one of them.

To be a church that God is building requires excellence in everything, from worship to business operations.

I think it would be interesting to study churches of all sizes that understand the mandate to give God their best in this area. Looking particularly at when they put it into practice and it's correlation to growth, changed lives, impact, increased giving, etc.

[Scott Wilder]

Sounds to me like a few of need to collaborate and create aformentioned magazine!

Anyone with me?

[TonyDye]

Gordon, I know this concept of excellence in the local church is a topic near and dear to you. How can "we" all help reach out to the smaller churches, or even the larger ones, when so many churches aren't even looking for help? Viral Church Marketing?

[TonyDye]

OK Scott, tell me what you have in mind. Two big questions: 1) how do we fund it, 2) how do we get it to 300K churches who don't know they are looking for it? I'm for it!

[Austin Spooner]

Tony, maybe we think about what the publications are that those churches we are trying to reach are actively reading already and try to partner with them to get some articles in about the subject. I know our staff probably would not choose a Church Technology type magazine, but they will probably continue to read "Worship Facilities" and others. This may help with the funding aspect as well.

[TonyDye]

Austin, do you think there is a set of publications that the small, 1-staff-person, church, (which means 70% of 300k) consistently read? I've met a few of these pastors who never read anything that has anything about "church" in the title.

[GordonMarcy]

Oh, churches are looking for help.

If a church has any of the following systems, technologies, etc., they have looked or are looking for help: ChMS, accounting, audio/visuals, website, content management system, hardware/software/network, podcasts, streaming, e-marketing, e-commerce, marketing/branding, etc.

The help may come from staff, volunteers, vendors, consultants or friends of the family, but pastors and even most staff in growing churches of all sizes are not doing these things.

Every growing church reaches the point where common sense tells leadership that they need people, processes and technologies to keep doing the work God has called them to do. Without these assets, quality deteriorates and confidence sags. Or worse, stagnation or a falling back occurs.

So, they will get help.

The challenge again is defining excellence and knowing how to fill the positions with the right people. (Previous comment)

Getting to churches at this point of need (the first time, when they're making a change, or experiencing a problem) is the challenge for those on the outside that feel called to help.

Essentially we're talking about a business/ministry proposition. What is the best way to provide a holistic set of business, communication and technology services to the local church?

Geoff Surratt, Pastor of Ministries at Seacoast Church (Charleston, SC) has some interesting ideas that I'm looking at.

http://geoffsurratt.typepad.com/inner_revolution/2010/03/free-indeed.html
http://geoffsurratt.typepad.com/inner_revolution/2010/03/wicker-basket-economy.html
http://geoffsurratt.typepad.com/inner_revolution/
http://geoffsurratt.typepad.com/inner_revolution/borrowapastor.html

[Jason Powell]

I seem to recall Steve Hewitt saying the majority of the 50,000+ subscribers to Church Computing Magazine are from small churches. Might wanna ping him for more details.

[Jason Powell]

opps ... it's Christian Computing Magazine http://www.ccmag.com

[Mattharrell]

I'm for this too. Perhaps we need to find someone that's connected with ccmag so we can find out if would they allow us to put an article or series of articles in their magazine. And we also need to find out about their readers. You would assume that someone that reads a magazine with that title would actually be using software. I am definitely interested in writing some articles and forming some plans around this.

I'm also interested in this from Gordon's angle of running a church just like a business. As an entrepreneur, I have a lot in common with a church planter for example. That's why I'm trying to get involved with the Exponential Network. By the way is anyone on this thread going to be there? I'll be there Wednesday evening and Thursday. I'd love to meet up.

[Gordon@gordonmarcy.com]

Matt, managing church communications and "business operations" like a well run business is one way of saying it, yes. Although, framing it that way can be a bit sensitive to some. The operative word is really "excellence."

When Bob Russell, our church's former senior pastor, first came to Southeast in 1966, the church was meeting in the basement of a small house. At the time of his retirement in 2006, the church had grown to nearly 20,000 in weekly attendance.

Right from the start, "excellence" was one of the church's core values. Bob devoted an entire chapter to the subject (excellence in every area of ministry) in his book "When God Builds A Church." I can tell you from first hand observations and involvement, this value has always been extended to operations, technology, media and communications.

Bob said about excellence: "Mediocrity breeds indifference, but quality attracts ... Imagine how much easier it would be if your church services were done with so much excellence that they inspired people to the extent that they couldn't help but tell their friends about their experience."

Bob is quick to point out that the emphasis on excellence is a major part of God's success story at Southeast and the tens of thousands who have come to Christ there.

Each church will need to determine how to define and apply excellence to ministry and operations. But, here's the point.

In the past, perhaps a growing church could have applied excellence to every area BUT technology and communication and gotten by. Though the point could probably be argued otherwise.

In any case, with the rapid rise of technological sophistication and complexity and the globalization of communication, those days if they existed are gone. For churches of any size.

[TonyDye]

Gordon, I certainly hope you are right that the small churches know to be looking for information, and also hope they are finding it.  I have an extremely small sample (two) where that is not the case.  I like Geoffs payment model!

[TonyDye]

TypePad HTML Email

Matt, you should probably get to know Steve Hewitt at http://ccmag.com/ (also on twitter as
@SteveHewitt, but not very active).

From: TypePad

[Mattharrell]

Thanks for this Gordon. Yes, I always try to be sensitive with wording and I completely understand your points here. What I meant to suggest was that a business entrepreneur has a lot in common with a pastor that's trying to start a new church. The daily challenges of making decisions and the ups and downs of a startup are common to any new venture. So perhaps I read into your comment what I wanted to hear :).

That being said I second your notion of excellence!!! It's not just about throwing more money at the IT budget. It's about being committed to using the RIGHT technology for your church. Knowing what's out there and forming relationships with vendors and taking the time to understand what can be accomplished. I desperately want to be part of a community or cause whose aim is to foster this excellence.

Wheels are turning...

[Scott Wilder]

Sorry it took so long to get back...

re: magazine idea

I don't think we go from initial idea right to full blown print media.

Can we create a PDF magazine? Start with a free PDF magazine and as we get metrics on how many downloads we get; perhaps go after advertising to better fund it?

So your last question is the most compelling. How do we get to 300k churches to take notice? I wish I knew. PDFs can be distributed as part of a podcast feed. IMO podcasts seem to be a great conduit for really shining a light on specific vertical markets. Maybe a weekly 15 to 30 minute video with news, current events, tips and tricks, interviews, etc.