I put a post on social media recently that looked something like this:

“Old metrics of church effectiveness:

  1. How many butts are in the seats on Sunday morning?

  2. How big is my building?

  3. How big is my budget?


A few (of many) new metrics of church effectiveness:

  1. Increased number of people creating space around dinner tables to allow for community and shared lives

  2. Increased percentage of our resources that are shared with others? (money, tools, lawnmowers, food, time, vehicles, etc)

  3. Increased percentage of people who know their callings/skills and are actively released to change for the good their neighborhoods, workplaces, and cities?

  4. Increased number of people sharing and dialoguing around the stories of Jesus and what they mean around dinner tables, firepits, cafe tables and bar top tables.”

It got a good bit of buzz. The conversation is critical. People go after what we celebrate. So we have to make sure that we celebrate and measure the right things.

We want to make sure that we align our metrics with our vision and values.

Rich Robinson references vision, values, and strategy this way:

  • Vision – so we are measuring in the present indexed to the future we desire.

  • Values - so we are measuring in the present indexed to the culture we desire (values embodied= culture)

  • Strategy - so we are measuring indexed to what we want to achieve and the progress we desire to make

And then you need to have a learning process to do review, analysis and insight into the scores or progress you made against the metrics that you have.

Some of the examples of measurements might be:

  • Hours present in the community

  • Meals with neighbors

  • Faith conversations

  • People of peace

  • Risk taken in Mission

  • Hours spent in communal prayer

  • Prototypes that are live

  • Staff hours devoted to equipping

  • missional stories per gathering

I think that you can shift what things you are measuring as you go to match up with your values. You don’t have to keep the same measurements all the time. I think it’s good that we continue to think about different angles of what it means to follow Jesus in all of life.

It’s also important that metrics don’t become a form of new legalism or something. We don’t want people to be burnt out, or to find their validation in knocking off some sort of checklist. Playing around with metrics is a way to keep us aiming at the right targets, to keep our minds and hearts fixed on Jesus and his mission.

So consider your goals, values, and calling and start to track real efforts to live as Jesus lived in the world. Have fun with it, and don’t take yourself too seriously.