The brilliant management expert Peter Drucker said “What gets measured gets managed.”

In other words if you’re not measuring the results of something then it will most likely not get managed.

If something is not managed it will stop improving and grow stagnant. Nothing grows on it’s own. There is always intentionality, effort and strategy in growing things.

If you’re like me we get in a routine of Sunday after Sunday. Week after week. And we do the things we’ve always done without actually tracking progress and seeing if it is working.

Every once in a while we should stop what we normally do in our weeks to get ready for Sunday services and reflect on what we’ve been doing.

Before you make the set list or film church news or post on social media stop and ask these questions:

1. What is our goal for this Sunday?

2. Will each of these things like songs, announcements, message, etc. help us move towards that goal?

If so then move forward.

If not then stop and pivot.

Putting energy and work towards a target that is not effective is a waste of time.

If you are spending prime real estate on a Sunday morning promoting an event then you should track the metrics immediately that afternoon and the following week. This is great research and data you can use for future planning. Many times in churches we give prime real estate and promotional time to events that are important to the church, but maybe not as important to the people in the church. If you are promoting sign ups for something check them and see how many people followed through on your CTA (call to action) from the promotion.

One important thing to keep in mind is some things are harder to measure than others. It may not always be hard facts and figures that tell the story.

Not everything that matters can be measured.

And you have to make sure the metrics you are measuring align with your churches vision and mission. It’s very easy to measure things that don’t matter. Sunday attendance numbers are easy to measure but if your goal is to reach lost people how does overall Sunday attendance numbers let you know if you were effective? Measuring how many people viewed your online stream is easy to measure in You Tube but how do you know if they actually engaged and are being discipled and growing into a follower of Jesus.

You may have to go a little deeper. Sometimes effectiveness is hard to measure with numbers. That’s why your mission has to be crystal clear so you can evaluate it effectively.

If your vision is to reach lost people in your city here’s a few ways besides attendance numbers that you can use to evaluate if you are reaching lost people:

1. How many first time guest cards are being turned in each week?

2. How many new people are participating in Next Steps or Growth Track classes?

3. Do you notice a larger number of people not worshipping? (News flash- that’s a good thing because it means they are new and don’t know what to do!)

4. Are some of your long attending church members getting uncomfortable with some of the people coming to the church? Again this is a good thing it means new people are coming. I’ll leave the part about the long attending church members getting uncomfortable for another blog post for another day.

If your vision is to reach people online then ask yourself these questions.

1. How did we intentionally engage with the online audience throughout service?

2. Were there any parts of service that we focused just on the in person audience and ignored the online audience?

3. Were there phrases or things said that didn’t apply to the online audience that would make them feel excluded?

4. Are there any stories of life change from our online audience from Sunday?

Leave a comment and let me know some of the things you are measuring to make sure your church is moving towards it’s mission.

Cheering for you!