Is measuring a church’s effectiveness by the numbers all bad?

Let’s say you take the Great Commission in Mathew 28 seriously, which commands us to “make disciples” of all nations.

Let’s also say you rebel against the notion of reducing your church to growth numbers. You minister to individual people, not masses; you measure success by changed lives, and if the church grows as a result, so be it.

I have a question for you. How many disciples have you made lately?

To me, counting people reveals how well a church is fulfilling the Great Commission. If I know the number of baptisms, new converts, small groups, adult Bible class members, missionaries, giving per capita, etc., and if I track the trends year over year, I can deduce whether a church is healthy.

Obviously there must be a balance between the extremes of numbers obsession and numbers aversion. Will Mancini articulates this well in the following excerpt from his book, Church Unique.

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Church Growth vs. Growth Idolatry

When it’s time to attend a pastor’s gathering, deep emotions are connected to how the church is doing.  If it’s growing, we can’t wait to find subtle ways to tell our ministry colleagues.  If it’s not, we hope no one asks (or we just don’t attend the group).

Show Me the Bigger Box!

I see growth idolatry reflected most often in three scenarios.  The first is when churches exhibit little financial generosity outside of their local ministry.  One pastor I know has a vision of planting thousands of churches in his lifetime.  But with each year of success and more resources to invest in planting, the mother church seems to grow ever stingier.  The second is when churches get their bigger building but don’t know what to do next.  I did a funeral with a pastor in St. Louis years ago.  As we drove from the gravesite, he confessed that after moving into their $10 million facility, he was completely at a loss when it came to the church’s vision.  Instead of discovering his Church Unique and clarifying a new vision, growth idolatry had demanded the bigger box.  The third scenario is rapid expansion of the multi-site movement.  Although multi-site is a strategic option for many, it can serve the growth idolatry of some who would be better off planting churches than leveraging one teacher across other local venues.

From Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement (Jossey-Bass, 2008); used with permission