My new scoreboard: What I am counting and why.
One of the more pleasurable things during COVID (if there are any) is not having to count Sunday morning worship attendance. The biggest pressure for a pastor is to have big numbers on Sunday. Somedays we do. somedays we don’t. As a result much of our success as pastors is connected to how many were there on Sunday rather than how many are living like Jesus. And admittedly, as a church growth guy, I like big numbers. However, COVID gave all pastors a respite from that pressure and has freed us up to think more strategically about what we will count going forward.
I’ve cast a vison for my church (read about it here) in which I state that moving forward I’d like us to value Engagement over Attendance. Our win is people living like Jesus. Sunday morning worship attendance has been the driving metric of the church for decades. And while Sunday morning attendance certainly matters, it matters much more to us that our people are living out the 6 discipleship steps in what we call “the path” (worship, learn, give, group, service, invite). Engagement in “the path” is our new attendance and engagement in all six steps will comprise our most important metrics.
Below is my new scoreboard:
General
Salvations (our goal is 52 per year…one per week)
Baptisms (our goal is to match the number of salvations at a minimum)
Membership
Worship (our goal has pre-COVID was to grow by 7% each week over the previous year. We have yet to be able to define a numerical goal.)
In-Person Attendance (our goal is to grow every week back to our numbers pre-COVID)
Online Portal Attendance
Facebook Live Viewers
Group/Learn
Number of Small Groups
Weekly Small Group Attendance
Weekly Event Attendance
Youth Group Attendance
Children’s Ministry Attendance
Serve
Serving in the church
Serving in our community
Give
Weekly Tithe (Our goal is $19,500 per week)
Weekly Giving to Others (Our goal is $2,000 per week)
Weekly Giving Units
Undesignated Cash (Our goal is for this number to be constantly increasing. The best things in church life often happen in the financial margin)
Invite
Visitors (Our goal is 600 per year, which easily leads to 10% growth overall)
Facebook Page Likes (this number matters because we have thousands watching online and this one engagement is a virtual step towards full engagement in the church and a huge step towards Jesus.)
Instagram Followers
A couple comments about these metrics
It’s wise for churches to have metrics. Having goals, being accountable and marking progress is beneficial to the kingdom.
Yes we have this on a large dry erase board in our conference room for all to see.
I have one of my admins post the numbers on Monday morning prior to our 10am Monday morning staff meeting.
There are many more metrics we watch obviously but the ones above are the indicators that people are engaging not simply attending.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this you might enjoy some of my other posts. Click here to read more.
