Measurement Metrics Lead Me to Dreams of the Future

I have been doing a morning watch devotional/meditative time for over two months now.  I did my first broadcast on March 30, and the format hasn't changed much.  I use Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours, and I read most of the morning selections out loud.  I do change the gendered references to God as much as I can.  I sketch for 5-7 minutes in silence.  I read the closing prayer which Tickle labels The Concluding Prayer of the Church.  I then give various benedictions, reminding people that God is with us and rooting for us and hoping that we'll help in the creation of the new/better world that God envisions for us.

Most days, no one tunes in as I broadcast live at 5:30 a.m. on my church's Facebook page.  I go back later in the day to see how many people tune in later.  Usually there are around 100 people reached, with 4-20 engagements.  I'm not exactly sure what those numbers mean, but I'm guessing that engagement means that people did more than scroll by it on their feed.

Yesterday I noticed that one of our church members was doing a watch party a few hours after the original broadcast.  As far as I know, that member had never viewed morning watch before, at least not as measured by a "like."  There are 4-6 regulars who hit "like" on a regular basis, 3-5 times a week.

Yesterday's morning watch had 78 views, 66 people reached, and 83 engagements--83 engagements!  It had more views and more engagements than any other one I've done.  It will be interesting to see if future broadcasts get the same kinds of numbers.

And here's another interesting aspect:  I usually link to the video on my own Facebook page, but yesterday I didn't.  I meant to link it, and I thought I did.  So the numbers are all from people who found the video on my church's Facebook page.

In a time that seems so long ago (2010 or so), it seemed like many people were monetizing all sorts of activities with just a bit of social media activity.  At the same time, I saw all sorts of articles that promised to show us how to interpret the metrics of effectiveness, how to improve, how to decide which activities to continue and which ones to abandon.

Those analytics would have had me abandon my morning watch weeks ago.  Those analytics would have told me that no one was watching and that there were no statistics to give me hope that anyone ever would.

I thought of that yesterday as I watched the parishioner's watch party.  If I had quit broadcasting in mid-April, she wouldn't have had the chance to discover it and invite her friends, some of them non-members, to watch.

I've been thinking of church metrics for a long time.  How do we measure membership?  How do we measure effectiveness?  Even as I've been thinking about these measurements, some part of me thinks that it's ridiculous.  We know that part of this can't ever be measured in the way that would make statisticians and people in charge happy.

If I had the job of director of distance programming, would my little morning watch program have been cut?  Would my boss have told me to do something that reached more people?

I'm happy to keep broadcasting.  It keeps me doing this practice.  And if a few people find it meaningful along with me, that's a bonus.  And if a lot of people eventually find their way to it, even better.

And if PBS starts a channel devoted to theological programming and asks me to be part, I'm game.  I'd love to be the Bob Ross of morning devotions.  I'd love to be the Oprah show on the channel devoted to theological programming.