Measuring What Matters Most

by Reba Collins

How fruitful are your church’s ministries? How do you measure transformation? How do you track the warm heart of your congregation with cold, heady numbers?

Measuring ministry results has been the bane of every church pastor and denominational leader ever since someone noticed that fewer and fewer people are attending church.

The debate rages on between the “How to” and “Why do we need to?” camps. This leaves many congregations chasing their tails every time a change in leadership brings a different perspective. All too often, they try to appease both factions by measuring existing conditions that tell them only how well they are doing NOW, but reveal no clues on how far they have to go to accomplish their mission in the FUTURE.  

In a recent blog post, Measuring What Matters: A Conversation about Metrics and Mission, Bishop Ken Carter calls for clearer thinking in the midst of the chaos and confusion. As he puts it: “In the absence of clear thinking, we simply remain busy in our cycle of activity, confusing program with mission and exertion with fruitfulness.”

Bishop Carter points leaders to Gil Rendle’s new book, Doing the Math of Mission, as a valuable resource guide in measuring what matters most -- your church’s missional achievement.

I encourage you to read Bishop Carter’s post for yourself. In it he highlights six essential insights from Rendle’s book that can transform the way you approach metrics for measuring fruitfulness.