Welcome to 2013.
How are you going to measure the success of your church this year, and every other year, for that matter? Worship attendance, finances, Sunday school and/or small group attendance, the number of baptisms, the number of new leaders raised up?
What if I told you that even though these are all important, none of them is the absolute measure of success? Would you believe me? Well, only one of them is even close – baptisms.
So what is the measure of success for a church? I think it is how much difference a church is making in the community and the world. So the key question is this: would your community miss you if you left? Or perhaps this: does your community even know you exist?
The Church is supposed to be the sign and example of the coming Kingdom of God. It was put here to make the world a different place. I doubt if God counts how many noses are in worship or what the take was. But I know God is thrilled when the community and world are different because of your church.
So how do you measure the sending factor of your church? Let me suggest that you do the following:
- Make a list of all the programs you have and use a yellow marker to highlight those that are for your members and a red marker to highlight those that are geared to make a difference in your community and the world. We are how we spend our money.
- Next, count the number of people working in your church for any reason each week. Then count the number of people who went out from your church to make a difference in the community or world by actually doing an overt act of some kind.
Tweet ThisDo you like what you see? If not, start working toward changing the picture. It will make the next year a much more productive year and will be a better sign of the coming Kingdom of God.
Happy New Year!
Question: How have you measured your church’s growth in the past? Has it been effective? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
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