How Grace Church Eden Prairie Doubled Their Attendance and Increased Generosity During the Pandemic

82% of tithes and donations were processed online after a successful Pushpay implementation.

Summary

Situated in a Southwest suburb of Minneapolis, Grace Church Eden Prairie has served its congregants faithfully since the original church’s formation more than eighty years ago. Their current building – a 350,000 square-foot facility constructed in 2002 – includes a worship auditorium that seats 4,200 people.

“When I think of Grace Church Eden Prairie, two words come to mind – big and messy,” said Executive Pastor Craig McLain. “We have 176 active ministries, a multi-site campus, a traditional chapel service, and an online livestream. And we love it.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Grace Church Eden Prairie averaged 5,000 weekly attendees across their Sunday morning, satellite campus, and livestream services. As the pandemic required most churches – including Grace Church Eden Prairie – to temporarily suspend in-person gatherings, McLain and his staff expected to see a dramatic drop in attendance and giving.

To put it mildly, that wasn’t what happened.

Pushpay

Like many churches of their size, the administrative staff of Grace Church Eden Prairie rely on digital services to process congregational giving, maintain a mobile app, and engage with first-time visitors and long-time members. They’ve been using both Pushpay and Church Community Builder for several years.

“Before committing to Pushpay, we had five different online giving components,” McLain said. “One tangential benefit we didn’t think about occurred during the Pushpay implementation process. We contacted every one of our recurring givers to let them know we were transferring to a new system. As a result, we retained almost 100% of the recurring givers, and many used the opportunity to increase their recurring gift.”

Prior to Pushpay, McLain estimated that only 55% of tithes and donations were processed online. After a successful implementation, McLain said that percentage jumped to 82%.

“The implementation team was extremely helpful through all of this, and because of what we’ve been able to accomplish, Pushpay has become a mainstay for us,” McLain said. “In 2019, we processed 35,000 online transactions. In 2020, we’re on track for 38,000.”

Church Community Builder

With a system in place to handle congregational giving when it wasn’t possible to pass the offering plate, Grace Church Eden Prairie thought they were adequately prepared for the transition to online-only services in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Prior to COVID, we ministered to approximately 5,000 people every week,” McLain said. “During the pandemic, that number more than doubled. We were shocked. It’s been amazing. We now see 11,000 attendees between our live and online services.”

During their 2020 Easter service, Grace Church Eden Prairie ministered to more than 17,000 live and virtual attendees. Thankfully, instead of being overwhelmed by the sudden spike, the church turned to Church Community Builder’s church management software (ChMS) to facilitate outreach to new visitors and first-time guests.

And as the pandemic continued to take a toll – from an economic and public health perspective – throughout the year, the role of Church Community Builder’s software shifted to the forefront of the church’s outreach strategy.

“Just having all of our church members’ contact information in CCB enabled us to put together a kind of ‘SWAT’ team of employees and volunteers to reach out to them on the phone,” McLain said. “And we divided our membership database into different demographic groups, and would call people to check in and ask, ‘How are you doing? Is there anything we can do for you?’”

From those phone calls and conversations, Grace Church Eden Prairie was able to construct a volunteer database from which they could organize and respond to the many needs and requests they were hearing from their church members.

“The software really enabled us to stay connected to our attendees, particularly the elderly community, during the pandemic and serve them well,” McLain said. “That was just one of the ways that the Church Community Builder helped us to continue moving forward.”

A Winning Combination

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Grace Church Eden Prairie to critically evaluate how they would continue to engage with their church members and visitors – even after the virus has loosened its grip on the country. A lot of uncertainty remains, but McLain is confident that Pushpay and Church Community Builder will be central to their future efforts.

“With all of the integrations between Pushpay and CCB, we’ve been able to get a better sense of how people have changed their behaviors in relation to the church – especially in regards to giving, attendance, and volunteering,” McLain said. “We’ve been able to use all of these data points to help us reach out to church members in need who might not have reached out to us.”

With the information gleaned from Pushpay and Church Community Builder, Pastor McLain and his staff feel more empowered to reach out to individual members of their congregation with more insight and pastoral care.

“Having the ability to process and analyze the data provided by Pushpay and Church Community Builder has been a lifesaver for our church,” McLain said. “Not only do we have a more accurate picture of our finances, but we can easily detect trends and early warning signs of those who are hurting and needing help in our congregation.”

Looking back at the challenges and interruptions of the previous year, Pastor McLain said that he remains hopeful and encouraged of what the future has in store for the global Church.

“The biggest takeaway from all of this is that people are hungry for face-to-face interaction and in-person discipleship,” McLain said. “We’ve seen a shift away from ‘big program’ church ministry, and a huge interest in global evangelism and day-to-day discipleship. The pandemic really stretched us, but it also showed us that nothing can stop the advancement of God’s kingdom.”