The old adage “you get what you measure” holds true both in business and in the church. Obviously it might appear to be easier to develop measurement metrics for a business than a church, but is it? I don’t think so.
When I was pastor we always measured elements based on our vision. Our vision was “everyone a missionary.” Based on that vision we developed our metrics. If I were a pastor today the vision would be the same and here is what I would measure in the order of importance.
- How many new converts do we have this month?
- How many people do we have deployed in ministry in the world this month?
- How many of our people are in small groups this month?
- Do all of our small groups have a mission they are involved in each month?
- How many new leaders are being mentored this month?
- How many new leaders emerged this month?
- How many tithers do we have this year compared to last year?
- What is our worship attendance compared to last year?
- How many new churches are satellites have we established this year?
- How does our income compare to the last three years?
Each of these elements can be measured. What is hard to measure is the spiritual development of people. But if you content that we are the nearest to Christ when we are giving the cup of cold water then you can sort of tie this measurement to the second question in the above list.
So what are you measuring and how do you apply accountability to the results of your metrics?
February 29th, 2012 on 4:24 am
I think those are good questions. Another one I would throw in the mix is – How many hours is our church family spending together on a weekly basis? Have we seen an increase this past year or a decrease? This assumes, of course, an agreement to the value of time being a strengthening component to the Body.