“How many did you have on Sunday?” It's the question heard at many gatherings of pastors. How many attended? How many were saved? How much was the offering?
Measuring growth by numbers is easy, but a healthy congregation will recognize that there is more to growth than numbers. In fact, a congregation must grow in other ways if they expect to sustain numerical growth.
Compare this less tangible growth to the gauges on the dashboard of a sports car. The odometer is the only instrument that will tell a driver if he is getting closer to his goal. Other gauges can help a driver know whether he will even reach his destination, though not giving any clue as to how close he is.
A speedometer reveals how soon the destination will be reached.
A tachometer indicates how hard the engine has to work to get to the destination.
There are also oil pressure gauges, coolant gauges, and others.
The church has the following panel of instruments that can be used to gauge whether the congregation will reach their growth goals:
1. Spiritual Growth
When people join a church, they need guidance in order to grow as disciples. Members must by fed and equipped to be effective in the ministries God calls them to.
2. Leadership Development
No church can increase its attendance beyond the ability of its leaders to minister to and care for the needs of the members. A growing church needs a growing team of leaders to carry the weight. One indication that such growth is occurring among the leaders is to look at their initiative.
When leaders move from simply following the staff's vision and plan to developing their own plans and ideas for fulfilling the vision, growth is occurring.
When people move from being led by "loyalty" to being led by a Spirit-guided sense of purpose, growth is occurring.
3. Missions and Ministry
As people begin to understand their calling and are equipped for it, they naturally begin to fulfill it. They start to see themselves as truly having a part in God's plan. This leads to even greater growth as congregational self-esteem is raised to a healthy level and the members become more bold in their witness.
4. Stewardship
The fact that the budget is increasing each year does not mean that Christians are growing as stewards.
When attendance is level, the budget should increase at the rate of inflation, or at least at the rate of increase of the members' incomes.
When attendance is increasing, it is normal to expect an increase in the budget as well. More people should mean more dollars.
Such increases in the budget do not reflect real discipleship growth. Some members may even think that since there are more people to carry the burden they don't have to give as much. To understand the budget gauge, look to see whether the budget is growing faster than the membership. Click here for Stewardship Solutions
5. Administration
This gauge will measure whether business is conducted decently and in order and whether all members have a fair and equal opportunity to participate. The Scriptures teach that all things are to be done decently and in order (1 Cor. 14:40). If there is no order, or if the order is not clear enough for all members to understand, there is no room for growth. Growth in administration is not a question of control, it is a matter of trust with accountability.
An odometer marks an automobile's progress toward a destination, but unless a driver pays attention to the oil, alternator, coolant, and gas gauge, he may not arrive at his destination safely. In the same way, a church that looks only at attendance and ignores the gauges of spiritual maturity, leadership development, missions and ministry, stewardship, and administration may not arrive at their growth goal in a healthy condition.