Month: <span>November 2023</span>

Luke’s account of Christmas has a census as the reason Jesus birth took place in Bethlehem. As we come into the Christmas season I want to reflect on the nature of what statisticians do, in the light of the Bible’s…

Bible Numbers

What happens to the statistics we carefully collect and collate.  How are they used – if at all? In this edition we will look at myths, realities, and aspirations of using church stats NumbersMatters is also available as a podcast…

Stats Briefs

The CofE has released the Statistics for Mission 2022, so are they good news, bad news or no news? Well as I will explain, the broad answer appears to be yes.  Included also are some interesting occasional statistics on the…

Church Stats

Should the Church be SMART or organic?  A recent Church Times article rails against episcopal managerialism and sets its sights on “targets” as the problem. In this week’s NumbersMatters I want to say why we need SMART targets now more…

Stats Briefs