{"id":840383,"date":"2024-11-25T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=840383"},"modified":"2024-11-22T12:11:14","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T18:11:14","slug":"if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/","title":{"rendered":"If I Had to Choose Five Church Metrics to Measure and Follow . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A sincere pastor asked me this question: If I only had to measure and follow five church metrics, what would be my top five choices?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the one hand, this pastor understands he needs to have some level of accountability. The church that does not measure something is likely not to value it. For example, if a church does not measure attendance, it could be saying, or at least implying, that it does not place a value on gathered worship.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He is right. Pastors whose churches measure nothing are more likely to be in churches that are declining, discouraged, and disobedient.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But that same pastor is wary of putting an emphasis on numbers. He resists the \u201cnickels and noses\u201d disposition of some of his peers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He is right again. We can get enamored with our statistics to the point that we lose sight of the ministry and the people behind them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such is the reason he asked me the question. He knows he needs to have some level of numerical awareness and accountability. Would it be possible to follow five church metrics that would keep him informed and diligent? I have never been asked the question, so this article is my attempt to answer him, at least from my vantage point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>1. Conversions. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The number of people who have become followers of Christ and integrated into the life of the church. These are the people who are saved and redeemed and publicly profess their salvation.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Number of conversions year-to-date.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement Frequency:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Once a quarter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Comparison:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Number of conversions previous year-to-date.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>2. Worship Attendance. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The number of people attending all worship services. Include children, but don\u2019t double-count anyone.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Average worship attendance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement Frequency:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Once a month.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Comparison:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Numerical increase or decline from the same month last year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>3. Undesignated Giving. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes called budget giving or unrestricted giving, this measurement calculates the total financial gifts that have no restriction on how the church uses the funds.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total unrestricted giving year-to-date.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement Frequency: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once a quarter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Comparison: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Numerical increase or decrease from the same period last year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>4. Group Attendance. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The number of people attending groups in the church. It goes by many different names: small groups, life groups, Sunday school classes, community groups, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The average number of people attending a group each week.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement Frequency: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once a quarter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Comparison: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Numerical increase or decrease from the same period last year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>5. Net Giving. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total giving minus total expenses. This number lets you know if the church is increasing or depleting its cash funds.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Year-to-date net giving. If total giving is more than total expenses, the church is increasing its cash. If the total giving is less than the total expenses, the church is depleting its cash.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Measurement Frequency: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once a quarter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Comparison: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Year-to-date previous year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My five choices may seem overwhelming, but they can be straightforward. The person who is responsible for the church finances can provide you with metrics 3 and 5. And you likely know someone who can get you the other three metrics. You are getting four metrics every quarter and one metric every month. With this basic information, you can know a lot about the church you serve.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would love to hear from you. How do you view church metrics? Do you follow metrics in your church? If so, which ones do you follow? Let me hear from you in the comments.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sincere pastor asked me this question: If I only had to measure and follow five church metrics, what would be my top five choices?\u00a0 On the one hand, this pastor understands he needs to have some level of accountability. The church that does not measure something is likely not to value it. For example,&#8230;","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[193,1,183,184,182,179,186,192,177,178,14796,180,194,176,185],"tags":[19795,19796,19798,19799,19797,19026],"class_list":["post-840383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administration-and-finance","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-discipleship","category-facilities","category-first-impressions","category-health-and-metrics","category-how-to","category-lead","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-monday-wednesday-featured","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-preaching","category-revitalize","category-worship","tag-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow","tag-conversions","tag-group-attendance","tag-net-giving","tag-undesignated-giving","tag-worship-attendance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>If I Had to Choose Five Church Metrics to Measure and Follow . . . | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A sincere pastor asked me this question: If I only had to measure and follow five church metrics, what would be my top five choices? On the one hand, this pastor understands he needs to have some level of accountability. The church that does not measure something is likely not to value it. For example, if a church does not measure attendance, it could be saying, or at least implying, that it does not place a value on gathered worship. He is right. Pastors whose churches measure nothing are more likely to be in churches that are declining, discouraged, and disobedient. But that same pastor is wary of putting an emphasis on numbers. He resists the \u201cnickels and noses\u201d disposition of some of his peers. He is right again. We can get enamored with our statistics to the point that we lose sight of the ministry and the people behind them. Such is the reason he asked me the question. He knows he needs to have some level of numerical awareness and accountability. Would it be possible to follow five church metrics that would keep him informed and diligent? I have never been asked the question, so this article is my attempt to answer him, at least from my vantage point.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If I Had to Choose Five Church Metrics to Measure and Follow . . . | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A sincere pastor asked me this question: If I only had to measure and follow five church metrics, what would be my top five choices? On the one hand, this pastor understands he needs to have some level of accountability. The church that does not measure something is likely not to value it. For example, if a church does not measure attendance, it could be saying, or at least implying, that it does not place a value on gathered worship. He is right. Pastors whose churches measure nothing are more likely to be in churches that are declining, discouraged, and disobedient. But that same pastor is wary of putting an emphasis on numbers. He resists the \u201cnickels and noses\u201d disposition of some of his peers. He is right again. We can get enamored with our statistics to the point that we lose sight of the ministry and the people behind them. Such is the reason he asked me the question. He knows he needs to have some level of numerical awareness and accountability. Would it be possible to follow five church metrics that would keep him informed and diligent? I have never been asked the question, so this article is my attempt to answer him, at least from my vantage point.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-25T11:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Metrics-man-writing-on-transparent-screen.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thom S. Rainer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thom S. 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On the one hand, this pastor understands he needs to have some level of accountability. The church that does not measure something is likely not to value it. For example, if a church does not measure attendance, it could be saying, or at least implying, that it does not place a value on gathered worship. He is right. Pastors whose churches measure nothing are more likely to be in churches that are declining, discouraged, and disobedient. But that same pastor is wary of putting an emphasis on numbers. He resists the \u201cnickels and noses\u201d disposition of some of his peers. He is right again. We can get enamored with our statistics to the point that we lose sight of the ministry and the people behind them. Such is the reason he asked me the question. He knows he needs to have some level of numerical awareness and accountability. Would it be possible to follow five church metrics that would keep him informed and diligent? I have never been asked the question, so this article is my attempt to answer him, at least from my vantage point.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"If I Had to Choose Five Church Metrics to Measure and Follow . . . | Church Answers","og_description":"A sincere pastor asked me this question: If I only had to measure and follow five church metrics, what would be my top five choices? On the one hand, this pastor understands he needs to have some level of accountability. The church that does not measure something is likely not to value it. For example, if a church does not measure attendance, it could be saying, or at least implying, that it does not place a value on gathered worship. He is right. Pastors whose churches measure nothing are more likely to be in churches that are declining, discouraged, and disobedient. But that same pastor is wary of putting an emphasis on numbers. He resists the \u201cnickels and noses\u201d disposition of some of his peers. He is right again. We can get enamored with our statistics to the point that we lose sight of the ministry and the people behind them. Such is the reason he asked me the question. He knows he needs to have some level of numerical awareness and accountability. Would it be possible to follow five church metrics that would keep him informed and diligent? I have never been asked the question, so this article is my attempt to answer him, at least from my vantage point.","og_url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/","og_site_name":"Church Answers","article_published_time":"2024-11-25T11:00:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Metrics-man-writing-on-transparent-screen.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Thom S. Rainer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Thom S. Rainer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/"},"author":{"name":"Thom S. 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On the one hand, this pastor understands he needs to have some level of accountability. The church that does not measure something is likely not to value it. For example, if a church does not measure attendance, it could be saying, or at least implying, that it does not place a value on gathered worship. He is right. Pastors whose churches measure nothing are more likely to be in churches that are declining, discouraged, and disobedient. But that same pastor is wary of putting an emphasis on numbers. He resists the \u201cnickels and noses\u201d disposition of some of his peers. He is right again. We can get enamored with our statistics to the point that we lose sight of the ministry and the people behind them. Such is the reason he asked me the question. He knows he needs to have some level of numerical awareness and accountability. Would it be possible to follow five church metrics that would keep him informed and diligent? I have never been asked the question, so this article is my attempt to answer him, at least from my vantage point.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Metrics-man-writing-on-transparent-screen.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Metrics-man-writing-on-transparent-screen.png","width":1200,"height":628,"caption":"Metrics man writing on transparent screen"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/if-i-had-to-choose-five-church-metrics-to-measure-and-follow\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"If I Had to Choose Five Church Metrics to Measure and Follow . . ."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47ecb0b82afa1c1b6a9d1003673d2e90","name":"Thom S. Rainer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8c3ff1affa60c1a7bb88c4be178b40a86d32ab697f24a7e5802cc5875ab6eae?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8c3ff1affa60c1a7bb88c4be178b40a86d32ab697f24a7e5802cc5875ab6eae?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Thom S. Rainer"},"description":"With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/thomrainer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840383"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840389,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840383\/revisions\/840389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}