This weekend we’re doing a staff retreat and we’re going to talk about a number of things, including setting some measurable goals for different ministry areas. I really struggle with how to appropriately measure what happens at a church. Typically, the two measurements most church leaders pay attention to are nickels and noses. While I think weekly attendance and contribution should be attended to, I don’t believe they should be taken as the primary indicators of church health or missional success. However, I’m not sure I can come up with a list of other measurements that would be better. How do you measure Spiritual formation? How can you quantify life transformation? Maybe the reason most of us are so tempted to pay attention to attendance and giving is because those are the easiest things to measure.
Any ideas?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
Good question – how do you measure relationship enhancement without it becoming trivial or works-based? As a teacher and deacon the absolute most frustrating thing is telling a fellow church-goer what I read or studied – and getting that blank, deer-in-the-headlights stare back. Spirit-filled transformation is where it’s at, but maybe that does shine through in both church and Bible class attendance, and also in giving.
I think a broad-based and bona fide discipling and evangelistic effort that can be quantified to some degree would also be a good barometer.
I think the measuring of success somewhat depends on the area of your church’s greatest need. The church I minister to had a desperate need to understand “free” salvation, to understand the Spirit-led life, to lighten up on doctrinal differences, to maybe consider other believers as part of the saved. In the first couple of months you could walk in the door and feel the tension simmering beneath the surface. Certain huddle groups would form in the lobby after church to discuss things that were said or done “without authorization”. People would lead protest prayers, teach protest classes, meet at Braum’s after church to talk about it all.
But three years later, here’s what God has done. The controllers and gossipers have left. God’s Spirit has moved in. Grace, acceptance, love, claims of past ignorance, etc. are the topics of conversation. New families are arriving, saved and unsaved, to take part. Focus is on the community and reaching out to serve, not maintain ourselves. These are all very measurable to me. I can see it. I can feel it. Our community sees it and feels it.
I guess what I am saying is success is progress, whether baby steps or giant leaps. My problem with setting goals in the area of spiritual formation is it isn’t our business. Spiritual formation originates from the Spirit of God. Who are we to tell what that outcome will look like?
I have struggled with this same question myself. For a long time I measured my own ministry performance by how many people I could get in to the baptistry, it definitely produces something by looking at it that way, but Jesus didn’t say “Hey, go out in to the world and see how many folks you can dunk.” Actually he said go and make disciples, I had to learn this the hard way. I was getting a lot of people to be baptized but discipling and spirituall growth went by the wayside, which I think happens in a lot of our churches. So, I ask myself the same question. What are the measurables to a great ministry? I have finally allowed myself to understand that I may not be able to measure these things during my time in a specific ministry and I just have to be “OK” with that. Although it is frustrating, so then what do I do? I just focus on loving people like Jesus did, a few at a time. The measurable seems to be seeing transformation in people that you share yourself with and in turn asking them to do the same for someone else that you tried to do with them. So I guess I don’t have anything new to add to this discussion is the point, and I can accept that ultimately God can measure the success of my ministry and maybe I don’t have to.
I think you really have to work hard to clarify what success looks like in each ministry. One way I frequently coach churches is to imagine your retirement party — 25 years from now when people stand behind a microphone and say, “The one thing I learned from you that I’ll never forget is….” Or, “Every time I think of you and your ministry here, I think of….” How do you want them to finish those statements?
Then, with that definition of success in mind, you can strategize ways of leading people in that direction. The word “helpful” then means something that moves them down that line.
It’s linear. It’s left-brained. It’s modern. But that’s part of your job.
BTW, probably the best approach to this in a corporate church setting is Pantego Bible Church (www.pantego.org). Look for the Christian Life Profile. It’s an assessment tool they’ve been using for a number of years. Randy Frazee brought in some real heavyweights to help him develop it (Larry Crabb, Dallas Willard and George Gallup, Jr.).
Yes, good question…
kentf said,
“maybe that does shine through in both church and Bible class attendance”
I do not think so, not for all anyway. Not all are in a “Bible Class” but are there doing “stuff”.
Church attendance, hum. Just attendance or being engaged?
I think if there are things happening, people involved, working and having fun working than thats were it’s at. People really tring to know others and helping others. Hard to count, but you can feel it and if you look, you can see it.
Being in peoples lives, talking, getting to know them. Spending time with others. Helping, Serving. Yes, serving.
I will pray for your staff retreat and that you all be wrapped by the spirit.
Matt 9:35-38 Jesus went teaching, preaching, healing, and showing compassion. Measure the church by how many outside the church are being touched in these 4 ways, and how many inside the church are touching others in these ways.
Joe
I’m thinking of biblical expressions for growth and what biblical writers seem to value, what Christ values . . .
Jesus grew in these four areas:
1. Wisdom: is the church wiser than it was 10 years ago, or are we making the same mistakes over and over.
2. Stature: is the church growing in size, and doesn’t Scripture point to several hints at the importance of the rise and spread of the kingdom? Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), Jesus fed 5,000, Numbers of Israelites, 3,000 saved day of Pentecost, 7 churches of Asia Minor. Our mission team in Uganda was reticent to post baptism figures in our newsletters but more often posted churches planted. Is it possible that it’s an out of the box question. We’re looking at our one church instead of how many churches our church has planted, how many house churches, how many branches?
3. Favor with God: Don’t know how to measure this but I’m sure there’s something that might be revealed to others as they read this and think of how favor with God is measured in a life, fruits of the Spirit . . .
4. Favor with man: could we measure how the community sees us? One of our shepherds asked what the local firehouse thinks of us. The captain said, “You are a big church and people in this community are waiting to see what you are going to do for the community.” Perhaps, and I don’t want to put words in the captain’s mouth, but it could be re-phrased, “When are you church people going to wake up and realize that the community around you is hurting and dying and do something about it?” This one is tricky, because when a person says something like, “when attendance drops in a class to half what you started with, something’s wrong.” Perhaps hard things are being taught and something’s right. It’s more complex than that, and I guess that’s part of why we balk at straight up numbers as success. If we admit from the beginning that numbers matter but they are not the whole picture, then go about finding out of the box ways to think about measuring success, we’re on the way.
Some out of the box ways . . .
1. Measure people equipped for ministry rather than how many show up for class. For instance, how many teachers will you train to take your place this year? (assuming you are minister or teacher)
2. Is the church a praying people? Has anyone ever measured the number of days we’ve fasted as a church body?
3. I gotta run
All measurements can be used for pride. At the same time, we would like to know if we are moving toward or away from the goal. THis is a complex situation. In order ot know something we put ourselves at risk for ruining it with a meausrement.
I really like the direction Greg Taylor is taking in the previous comment. I also like the fruit of the spirit, but then there is the “how do you measure it?” problem. How do you measure joy and peace? How do you even define them?
I like some of the things in Doug Pagitt’s Re-Imagining Spiritual Formation book. It has a lot to do with what happens not during the Sunday “service.”
I think it would be a major success if a suburban church became close friends with an urban church, in a mutually beneficial relationship. I have seen wealthy white churches hand down their wealth to the poor inner city, but I have not seen them open their homes – or make the trip into the urban homes.
Anyway…great question.
For a measurement, I think it was in Fresh Fire, Fresh Wind:
“If you want to see how popular the pastor is, see how full the church parking lot is on Sunday morning.
If you want to see how popular the church is, see how full the church parking lot is on Sunday evening.
If you want to see how popular Jesus is, see how full the parking lot is for Wednesday evening/mid-week prayer meeting.”
If you need to count something, how about the number of members engaged in ministry AWAY from the “regularly-scheduled services” at the church building? How about the number of “unchurched” (or preChristian) folks being served and taught during the week? What is our mission, anyway? To grow spiritually, to grow numerically, or to serve, to preach and to heal?
Is it possible to accurately measure what happens at church and, assuming we could, whom would we be compiling this information for? Is it important to qualify our efforts to each other? I do realize the need for an institution to measure its worth, but as we lean on the power of prayer in our personal journeys, so too should we in our institutional missions. As leaders rely on God’s direction to guide and teach, followers rely on Him to provide approval in how and where to learn. The reality is that these two directions do not always run parallel, thus the inevitable predicament of change; no wrong or right, just different paths. Still, as we listen, truly listen to His will for us, our answers can be found. These answers are not always measurable in a worldly sense, but they are indeed very real and my belief is that God will surely measure the effectiveness of our personal and institutional missions, and He will show the various levels of success to those that are seeking it from Him. It will show in the face, attitude, spirit, involvement, zeal, and passion of the congregation and its leaders, and maybe even in the noses and nickels. Jesus was once the leader of a quite tiny congregation on a shoestring budget. It seems to me that He was on to something.
God Bless!
If you get a chance could you please say a prayer for a little girl named “Rebekah” who has cancer. God knows who you will be praying about! Thank you so much!
Trying to rally some good Christian Prayer for her and her family!
How do you measure spiritual formation? Hummmmmmmmmmmm
How about how the congregation sounds. What words do you hear most often? Songs most often sung? Gifts most often given? Sermon topics most often preached?
Can someone confess anything in it’s mist and fill listened to, uncondemned, cared for and walked with out of what they are dealing with?
Is the leadership know by their worn out knees and dirty hands or by the gray on their head, size of their pocketbooks and suit?
What to the testimonies/stories sound like? Do they ring with the sound of people in the midst of helping the hurting, lost, needy, about reconciliation, hope, lost and found again?
Does the congregation long to hang out with each other, eat with each other, grow with each other apart from the regular times.
Does it look and smell like the Jesus you hope to look and smell like?
Just some thoughts…
What if letting go of the measurements is what our churches really need? Could our disposition toward the quantifiable be resulting in fruit that is, well, lame and quantifiable? Should we be looking for ways to “discern” instead of measure? Could a group of church leaders be so thoroughly engaged with their fellow disciples that they could sit down and discern together the health and spiritual direction of a congregation? My apologies for being so thoroughly idealistic.
Look into Brent McCall’s ministry at the Branch in Dallas. His ministry is Transformax. His ministry aids in measuring spirituality in a church. His e-mail: bmccall@thebranch.org
If we really need to measure, perhaps we should tally the number of conversations each church person had with non-church people the previous week.
The above comments are full of wisdom, I am not in formal ministry, but I think about this alot. Measure church not by numbers but by spiritual health of members and how many new faces are showing up. Are the new faces being grafted into our church body and the kingdom as a whole? Is the church full of the Spirit or spitefullness? Full of the Spirit or selfishness? Do we smell of hope and compassion, do we point the way to Jesus and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit inside of us? Are people being “fed” and “watered”? Do they find rest for their souls? Can the people find God and a connection to God through us as “Jesus with skin on”? I think a church can be measured through the health of the programs for young children, teens, and young adults. They are open to teaching, in need of quidance, and making decisions that will determine the directions of their lives. I can say that most of my passion for God began in junior high and became more solid in high school and college. I now continue to build on those foundations. Keep up the good work.