Measuring What Matters
Measurement has been a troublesome thing for the church for two thousand years." That's how Jim Mellado of the Willow Creek Association responded when I asked about measuring congregational success. "It's incredibly hard to measure transformation in a heart," he continued, "and that's what we're all after."
No matter how you state the ultimate goal of your ministry, it is difficult to measure the things that truly matter.
When I began writing this, oil was still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from a drilling accident at the Macondo site. It was being described as the worst environmental disaster in history because of the widespread effect on the Gulf and its shoreline. Now the oil has stopped flowing and the most intense cleanup work is complete, but the incident is far from over.
Several storylines remain, including investigations to determine causes and assign financial liability, and debates over what restrictions to impose on future offshore drilling.
Measurement is an important subplot in this story. In the weeks after the blowout, two measures received a lot of attention: the number of days that it took to cap the well and the amount of oil that had escaped into the environment. The first was easy to quantify but of little value to anyone except the media. The second, the amount of oil, was much more difficult to measure and hotly debated. It caused me to wonder: Does it matter? Apart from sensational headlines, how does the quantity of oil from Macondo make any difference for the future? The official government estimate is that 4.9 million barrels leaked into the Gulf, but apart from the size of the fines assessed, this measure has no impact on the most important issues for the Gulf Coast.
What actually matters going forward? It matters if beaches are clean so that families can enjoy vacations on the Gulf. It matters if it is safe to eat fish and shellfish from various parts of the Gulf. It matters if there are steps we can take to protect the environment or accelerate the recovery.
The measurement challenges facing the church have many parallels to the Gulf oil spill. The things that matter the most—transformed lives, ministry effectiveness, spiritual growth—are the hardest to measure. So we settle for metrics that are easier to obtain but much less meaningful.
Inputs or outputs?
Many Christian organizations are unclear about what data is meaningful to their ministry. A chief struggle is the common confusion between inputs and outputs.
Simply defined, outputs are the results produced by a given organization or process. Inputs are what the process starts with or what it uses along the way.
For example, a bicycle manufacturing plant starts with steel for the frame and rubber for the tires as key inputs. It uses labor, machinery, electricity, and paint as further inputs. Can you imagine the plant manager boasting, "We set a record for the amount of steel we used this month"? Of course not. The accomplishment that truly matters is producing ...
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Paul Arveson
The first comment on this article was from a Muslim in Turkey; clearly the article crossed the line from specifically Christian spirituality to generic management in his mind. This is the risk of measurement: that its focus on quantity can distract us from quality. Nevertheless, the New Testament does challenge us in this area -- not for numerical measurements, but for evaluation: "Examine yourselves to see if you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?" 2 Cor. 13:5.
Prof Niyazi Karasar - Turkey
This is an important issue in all religions. It needs to be discussed not only by the religious leaders, but also by the specialists in all other related didiplines. It has both quantitative (metric, mind) and qualitative (hearth) sides. However, the assessment itself needs to be made by the individual himself/herself. Their sincere opinios and/or attitudes may be used as "outputs" of the religious activities supported by the church and/or mosque. While discussing the mission, policies and programs of religious activities, one may also utilize "validity" and "reliability" concepts and techniques of traditional scientific thinking. With these, the individuals may be able to asses the "appropriateness of religious activities supposed to support the basic mission in general"; and their own consistency in religious beliefs and perfpormances to that effect.
Gary Kemp
Interesting article. Some time back, I discovered in Scripture a metric measuring device ready for believer's self evaluation. Jesus gave us the Beatitudes (Matt. 5) which clearly tracks the Christian walk; call it a Christian maturity scale. Starting w. poor in spirit/k. of heaven - morn/comfort - meek/inherit earth - hunger righteousness/filled - merciful/shown mercy - pure in heart/see God - peacemakers/called sons of God - persecuted/kingdom. Verse 11 is the climax w. a mature & powerful believer being greatly used (even martyred) w. a glorious reward. Each beatitude is a progression of maturity to the next. So, one might create a score sheet, ask each church member to do some soul searching, and point to where they are on this Beatitude Scale; make up a numerical database w. results, divide the total by # participants, and voila, the final answer will indicate the spiritual maturity of the congregation. Read the Beatitudes again and see if this makes sense. GK>
Chris Hewko
We have begun a new pursuit of a different kind of metric. Rather than measure activity, we are measuring movement - new activity - something that is there that was not before. We are also placing a much greater emphasis on anecdotal information. but to really know our church, it means that everyone needs to be relationally connected in some kind of intentional discipleship. This helped light a fire underneath us for necessary relational connection as well.
Mark Brooks
I liked this post but what about measuring giving? Is not giving worship? I find it interesting that giving was not listed in your Meaningful Metrics. Giving continues to decline in this country not simply because of the economy but in a large part because we leaders fail to realize giving is worship. Are you measuring that or do you think giving is not worship?
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