So we're one week into collecting data.  The first population I've reached out to is the Gordon-Conwell Alumni community.  You are all amazing.  According to Mailchimp, the average "Open" rate for emails sent to religion-based mailing lists is 30.9%.  Gordon-Conwell alumni just blew that away at 55.3% just opening the email to see what it's about.  But beyond just opening an email, getting someone to actually click on a link in that email is even harder.  The industry average, again in the category for religion, is a mere 3.2%.  Gordon-Conwell alumni have clicked through (either to the PreachingTeams.com website or to the survey itself) at a rate of 17.6 percent... after just one week.  That's more than 5.5x the industry average!

What can we take away from these numbers?  Nothing, really, with any level of certainty or credibility.  But if I were to speculate?  I'd say that Gordon-Conwell alumni love the church, care deeply about the preaching of God's Word, and are interested in research that furthers our understanding of preaching and improves our practice of preaching.

As of today, a full 10% of people who received my invitation have clicked through AND filled out the survey and submitted it.  I am so thankful for the responses I have received so far!  Thank you for taking the time to participate in this research.  You've encouraged this researcher and fired me up to keep this project moving forward!

Tim.