Ministry Metrics: An Introduction
Have you ever been to one of those conferences at a large church where they give you the secret to making your church big? Did you ever come away feeling like a failure because you didn’t know the secret?
We know we are not supposed to compare ourselves to others, and compare our churches to other churches, but in our Western, American culture, size is king. Size is what we celebrate, particularly in churches. Every year, Outreach Magazine puts out a special issue describe the 100 largest churches in the US. In another issue, they detail the 101 fastest-growing church in the US. I have nothing against the lists but if I have learned one thing in ministry, it is this: What we celebrate we measure, and what we measure determines success. Celebrating largeness means that success is determined by largeness.
Every year when I fill out forms for our denomination, I get annoyed. The reason I get annoyed is that all they want to know is how much and how many. How much money did you take in? How much money did you spend? How many people were in your missions program? How many people did you baptize? How many? How Much? Just once, I would love to see some questions on that annual church report like this: Tell us how someone in your church influenced a person in the community this year. Another question that would be great to celebrate is: Describe how someone in your church made life better for a non-Christian.
I understand the numbers game. We need to know how many are part of our church and our denomination. We need to determine if we are getting bigger (which is different than growing) or getting smaller. But in truth, part of all this measurement is competition. We like to describe, via numbers, how big we are and how many people we influence. We like being the biggest, or the second biggest. It is the American way. Bigger is better, more is better, and when your church or company is bringing in lots of money and lots of people, the person in charge is considered a great leader. And who doesn’t want to feel they are doing a good job, even a great job? Numbers are important to understand and need to be acknowledged. We need to know how much we spend on ministry and we need to know if we are being good stewards of the resources God has given us. However, to use them as a measure of success is just not part of the heart of God.
The CEO, corporate success mentality that has invaded the church is truly a reflection of the culture we live in. What we see exalted through our media is the celebrity. In the church, it’s the celebrity pastor. We are fascinated with the celebrity, whether it is Britney and Paris, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds or Tom Brady, or pastors such as Rick Warren or Bill Hybels. We follow their moves, read their books, and imitate their dress. Moreover, people are attracted to their celebrity; many even hang on their every word.
When people are looking for a church to attend, large still wins. A large church is reflective of all the activities you can be involved in. A large church provides all the opportunities for you to be catered to. It offers a smorgasbord of ministries to meet your needs. It actually plays to our culture. The ME culture which began in the 1960′s and now is fully blown in Generation Me requires special attention and special needs – it’s all about us. And the church has responded. We have all kinds of ministries to deal with our dysfunctional society. Our sermons reflect our neediness: 10 Ways to have a better life, 6 ways to be more productive, and so on and so forth. I’m not against those types of sermons – I’ve preached them and even listened to them. Unfortunately too many of our churches only preach those kinds of sermons.
A Spainful Reminder
In 2008, I traveled to Spain and spent five days with missionaries from all across Western Europe. There were folks there from Spain, France, and Germany. Missionaries from the UK and Belgium were there as well. It was a breath of fresh air to listen to their stories and share in their experiences. However, part of their story greatly saddened me. I looked into the eyes of these people who left family and friends and most everything they own to travel across the pond to serve Christ. They had to learn a new language, a new culture, and many of them are isolated. No wonder Western Europe is called the graveyard of missionaries. These people work and serve and make investments, the likes of which most Christians in USAmerica would not dream of making. And while there may be 10,000 churches planted per month in parts of Asia, it takes years of relationship development for a person to consider embracing the message of the Gospel in Western Europe. So while on one side of the world is baptizing thousands, on the other side of the world they may only be baptizing hundreds.
Then they come home on furlough. Imagine standing before people who give money to missions and telling of how you’ve made investments in people and shared Christ with people in non-American ways, and the person you are telling your story begins to ask, “How many?” “Why aren’t you guys reaching thousands like in Asia?” What I heard were people broken because they come home on furlough or vacation or talk with people in the States and all those people wonder about is numbers. These missionaries often feel like failures because they can’t talk about the thousands coming to Christ.
What most people in the US do not understand is that what is going on in Asia, China specifically, is a reflection of two centuries of soil development and seed planting. Bob Roberts, in his book The Multiplying Church: The New Math for Starting New Churches, describe the importance of time and movements. He reminds us about the movement in China, “Hudson Taylor, Robert Morrison, and others labored there 150 years earlier. The seeds have to be planted for the movement to gain momentum. It took the early church 350 years to get to movement status. In the United States, the greatest church planting period came in the 1800′s, 200 years after the pilgrims landed.” (1)
So for two hundred years, the gospel was being planted by faithful men and women. It took two hundred years for the gospel to reach movement status.
What is now going on in Asia is the harvesting of seeds planted centuries ago. In Western Europe, the seeds of the Gospel are having to be re-planted. Planting is different work than harvesting, but planting must be done before harvesting takes place. There is a true biblical, and agricultural principle. You reap what you sow. You reap more than you sow. But you only reap after you so, so patience is required to reap the harvest. Yet we somehow compare Western Europe with Asia and are more concerned with how much and how many. We need to hear this message in the United States. We, for some reason, have lost the patience of the farmer. We have also lost the understanding that we need to sow the seed of the gospel as much as we harvest what is ripe.
I mostly sat in Spain listening to their stories and feeling their pain. It is easy to feel like a failure when you compare yourself and ministry to the Osteen’s, Young’s, Stanley’s, Hybels’, and Warren’s of the world. It is easy to feel like a failure if you are a missionary in Western Europe where the soil is hard and the planting difficult and you have few numbers to brag and boast about. Many pastors in USAmerica know how they feel. I wonder if we are able to admit that.
The Blessing of God?
Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX had their 2008 C3 Conference. The church, pastored by Ed Young, Jr., is a massive church near the Dallas-Forth Worth Airport. They have five campuses, four in the Dallas area and one in Miami, FL. During the opening of the C3 Conference, Ed had some fun(2) with Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston that has 47,000 + in worship each week. The church bought a downtown sports area, the Compaq Center a few years ago to house their massive turn out. The video that was shown to open the conference intimated that the blessing of God falling on a person or church results in largeness. Blessings equal bigness. I know they would never say that, but remember, what is celebrated is measured, and what is measured determines success.
If Not Numbers, Then What?
That is the question I hope we can answer. Beyond the numbers and beyond the “how many” and “how much”, I hope we can reframe success and help us see God’s standard. It may surprise you. It may just relieve your soul.
Now I want to make a statement, and one that I mean sincerely: Not all that is big is bad. The truth is that the blessings of God do fall and when that happens a church will grow. I applaud Rick Warren, because of the thousands his church has baptized and for the impact of Saddleback and Rick across the world. Same with Fellowship Church and Ed Young, Jr. But the truth is that very few churches will be like Saddleback. Or Willow Creek. Or any other mega-church. In addition, simply reaching megachurch status does not mean you are impacting your community or seeing transformation occurring. Spend some time and read The Church of Irresistible Influence: Bridge-Building Stories to Help Reach Your Community by Robert Lewis to discover a megachurch who realized they were not impacting their community.
While we celebrate the rise of the mega-church and it’s role in American Christianity, we need to hear some sobering words from Bob Roberts:
I have a vision and a dream. Let’s start a thousand churches over the next ten years, each one running a minimum of two thousand members, and in just ten years we will turn America upside down with the gospel! That would work, right? Wrong – that scenario just happened over the past ten years, and there are fewer people in the church today than ever before…Thom Rainer, author and columnist, wrote:
I am by nature an optimist. I have seen the hand of God too often in my life to live in a state of despair and defeatism. However, the state of evangelism in the American Church is such that I do have my moments when I wonder if the Church is headed down the path of many European congregations: decline and death. The facts of a 2004 research project I led are sobering. (3)
While the mega has increased, fewer people are involved in the local church. So while bigger isn’t bad, is also isn’t better. It also does not lead to a great impact of Christ in the community.
Notes:
1. Bob Roberts, The Multiplying Church, 33.
2. http://cp.blogs.com/cp/2008/02/ed-has-fun-with.html, accessed February 28, 2008.
3. Roberts, 25.
New blog post: Reframing Success in Ministry: An Introduction http://bit.ly/KLtiL