The Prayer report separates two things that are easy to conflate: prayer being offered, and prayer actually being prayed. Then it shows what happens in each case.
The question the report itself names is: How often do we pray with seekers, and what do we see when we do?
Running it
Open EchoAnalyst in the left-hand menu, then Prayer. Set a date range, choose your sources if you want to narrow it, and select Run Report. Nothing is computed until you do.
The controls are the same on every Echo Analyst report. They are described once in Getting started with Echo Analyst.
What the page shows
The practices that move seekers compares conversations where prayer happened against those where it did not, on spiritual movement.
Prayer and the decision moment is the same comparison against whether seekers took a spiritual action. Prayer culture by conversation type shows where prayer is habitual in your ministry and where it is rare, often the more actionable of the two, because it names the kind of conversation your team is not praying in.
Personal testimony is measured alongside prayer, in tiers, because in practice the two travel together.
The report itself opens with a Definitions section carrying the same terms in short form, so you can check a word without leaving the page.
What the measurements mean
Two different things are measured, and keeping them apart is the point of the report.
The measures
| Measure | What it is | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Prayer offered | Prayer was proposed. | The responder offered to pray. It does not mean prayer happened. |
| Prayer prayed | Prayer actually happened. | Recorded separately. The gap between the two is often the finding. |
| Movement | How often seekers moved toward God. | Share of assessed conversations in the top two movement buckets. |
| Decision | A seeker took a spiritual step. | Any of the six recorded actions, professions among them. |
| Testimony | Personal story shared, in tiers. | None, a personal connection, or a full faith story, three levels, not a yes or no. |
Spiritual movement
The measure that appears on more Echo Analyst pages than any other. Each analyzed conversation is placed in one of five buckets:
- Significant movement toward God
- Slight movement toward
- No change
- Slight movement away
- Significant movement away
Where a report shows a single movement percentage, it is the share of conversations in the top two buckets, significant plus slight movement toward. "No change" is not counted as positive.
The denominator is conversations where movement was actually assessed, not every conversation in the group. A conversation nobody could read either way is left out rather than counted as no change, so the rate is not quietly deflated by conversations that were never a fair test.
Reading the comparison
Each comparison splits the same filtered set into two groups, prayed and not prayed, and measures both. It is not a before-and-after; it is two groups of conversations in the same period.
The comparisons are shown however small the groups are, so read them against the conversation counts beside them. A conversation type needs 10 conversations before the report calls it out as one where prayer is offered less than half the time.
How the percentages are worked out
Three habits run through every number on this page, and they explain most of the surprises.
- Rates are per measured conversation, not per conversation. Each measure counts only the conversations where that thing was assessed.
- An empty sample gives a blank, not a zero. Where you see "—", nothing was measured. A confident 0% over no conversations would be a false statement, so the report declines to make it.
- Percentages are never averaged together. When groups are combined, the underlying counts are added and the rate is recomputed. Otherwise a rare group of three conversations would weigh as heavily as a common one of three hundred.
Why comparisons are not proof
Everything that compares one group against another here is an association. The report says so in its own words, and it is not a disclaimer to skip: if your team tends to do something in the conversations that were already going well, that practice will appear to cause the result.
The honest way to use it: treat a gap as a reason to try something deliberately, then watch whether the numbers follow.
Reading it honestly
Everything comparing one group against another on this page is an association, not proof of cause. The report says so in its own words, and it matters: if your team tends to do something in the conversations that were already going well, it will look like that practice caused the result.
Movement is measured only over conversations where it was actually assessed, not over every conversation in the group, so the denominator is smaller than the total and the rate is not deflated by conversations nobody could read either way.
A conversation type needs 10 conversations before the report calls it out as one where prayer is offered less than half the time. The comparisons themselves are shown whatever the sample, so check the counts beside them.
If it comes back empty
Two things cause this, and neither means the report is broken.
The Sources filter remembers what you last chose. A selection made months ago can exclude everything you have added since. Open Sources, check what is ticked, and run it again.
Only closed conversations are analyzed. A conversation that is still open, or that was abandoned before your team replied, carries no analysis and appears in no number here. A busy period can still be a thin one for this report if most of it never closed.