Growth Driver Retention (GDR)
% of event attendance lift (Easter, Christmas) retained in subsequent weeks.
Growth Driver Retention (GDR) measures how much of the attendance increase from a high-attendance Sunday — such as Easter, Christmas Eve, or Back-to-School Sunday — your church retains in the weeks that follow. It is expressed as a percentage of the original lift above the baseline.
For example, if Easter brings 200 more people than your rolling average and your attendance remains 40 people above baseline four weeks later, your GDR for that event is 20%.
Kingdom Metrics calculates GDR automatically for each recognized growth driver, giving you a historical retention rate for every major event your church runs.
Why it matters for your church: High-attendance Sundays only matter if some of those guests come back. GDR tells you which events are actually producing lasting growth and which are just one-day surges. A church with a consistently low GDR may need to invest in its follow-up process, guest experience, or second-visit programming rather than pouring more resources into the invite.