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Question 4: Metrics

How Do We Measure a Win?

A few days before our next session, Jeremy gave me a call and asked if I could come in the night before our scheduled meeting. I asked him why and he told me he and his team were going to see a baseball game as a staff event and they had an extra ticket. Now if you know me you know I love baseball. So although it took quite a bit of juggling in my schedule, I made it happen. It’s amazing what you can do when something is a priority.

I met Jeremy and the team in the church parking lot, as we had discussed, to carpool together. The ride over was filled with laughter and cutting up. No business, just a crazy time with some wonderful people. We had stopped for dinner before arriving at the stadium. (I guess Jeremy is like me . . . not too thrilled about an eleven-dollar hot dog and a six-dollar bottle of water.) The restaurant we ate at was close enough that we could walk over to the stadium. There were thousands of fans walking the streets and tons of energy in the air. It was toward the end of the season and the game was crucial for the home team in clinching a spot in the playoffs.

We entered the stadium and made our way toward the seats. Jeremy didn’t tell me but the seats were amazing. Seven rows back on the third base line, right behind the dugout. I was so excited to be there I actually splurged for the first round of snacks and beverages. Sixty-five dollars later, the first inning was underway. It was an incredible game. Great pitching, great hitting, a few errors, and a couple of seriously epic plays. We had an absolute blast. The dramatic finish was something I will never forget. It was the bottom of the ninth inning, with the home team down by one, two outs, and a man on second. The pitcher took it deep into the count, and on a 3–2 pitch, the batter swung and knocked it out of the park. A walk-off home run. The crowd went absolutely bananas. I’m not even a fan of the team, but I was going crazy too. I had such a great time at the game and the company made it so much fun.

The next morning we met in the conference room, the same place where we had already answered three of the seven unavoidable questions every leader must answer. Of course, before we began working, as any team does, we had to recap the night before, retelling the hilarious stories and replaying the highlights of the game. As we began to wrap up our version of ESPN, I told them that last night’s game had a lot to do with what we were discussing that day. I pointed to the board and said, “Look at number four.”

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I read out loud as I scrolled my finger across the board, “Metrics . . . how do we measure a win?” I went on to say, “Last night we watched a nail-biter of a game. We saw great plays, spectacular pitching, and some very dramatic plays. But there is one piece of the game that no one really talks about but that everything is measured by: it’s the scoreboard. The scoreboard lets you know if you’re winning, and it tells you the truth about whether your efforts are paying off. It determines whether or not you adjust your strategy, what you need to fix, or what you need to do differently. In short, the scoreboard doesn’t lie. It’s a tool that tells you the truth and lets you know if you are headed toward victory or defeat. Could you imagine if the team had to play without the scoreboard? What if the pitcher or the batter had no idea what the count was? What if they didn’t know how many outs there were or what the score really was? How would they know what they needed to do? It would be like playing the game but never really knowing if you are winning or losing.”

They all agreed with me, but from the looks on their faces they weren’t really sure why I was telling them this. I continued, “A game without a scoreboard is like a church without metrics. How do you know if what you are doing is really working if you don’t know the score? This is why the fourth question on the whiteboard is so important.” I looked at Jeremy specifically and said, “We have created the mission, we have a clear strategy, and we have a set of values that will serve as our guide, but now we have to create the metrics. We have to answer the question, ‘How do we measure a win?’ This is what metrics are for your church; they are the scoreboard. They let us know if we are really succeeding in reaching the lost or if we are just having transfer growth. Are we increasing the giving base or do we just have some large givers? Are we really growing our volunteer teams or is it just the same people doing the same thing? Do we think we have large involvement in small groups or do we really have large involvement?”

As we work with affiliate churches with the goal to help them get to continual and sustainable growth, I have noticed many times that they make a lot of assumptions. Often those assumptions are bent toward numbers that aren’t real. Although these numbers make us feel better, they don’t make us get better. Those assumptions hurt us in many ways. They may cause us to think we are winning when really we are not, or cause us to feel like a program is effective when in reality it is creating more work than results. They may give us a false sense of security when it comes to our income because we are measuring the amount of giving, not the amount of givers. Assumptions are not healthy; in fact they are very dangerous. That’s why metrics are important, because they tell us the real score and not what we think or falsely hope the score is.

Most churches measure their success on the ABCs (attendance, buildings, cash). Although these things are important and should be included, there have to be other areas that we measure and most importantly a system with which to measure them. If we don’t have this, then we will quickly fall into the trap of assumptions, believing something that isn’t real, which in turn never gives us a chance to change. Some people shy away from metrics, stating that the church shouldn’t be about numbers. In theory I understand what they are saying, but I strongly believe that measuring results and current realities is important. I also think it’s biblical. How did the disciples know there were five thousand people at the feeding in John 6? Someone counted. How did the shepherd know that there were ninety-nine sheep and one was missing? Someone counted. How did the leaders know that there were 120 people gathered in the upper room? Someone counted! Now here’s a little warning when it comes to metrics. You have to be careful not to let numbers drive up your ego or drive down your confidence. Be careful that you don’t get so caught up in measuring everything that you forget this; every number represents a child of God and each person has a story that is being written. But with all that said, I still strongly encourage creating metrics. They will provide clarity and honesty on where you are and where you need to go.

Metrics and Mission

It is important to note that metrics must work in conjunction with your mission. Everything supports the mission. This way, you are measuring the wins that lead you to your mission. You are measuring what matters, what will help move your church to fulfill what God has set out for you to accomplish.

As I discussed this with Jeremy and his team, I took a moment to reflect again on our baseball game from the night before. I asked them, “Do you remember the scoreboard? It has more than just the actual score; there are other stats as well. How many balls and strikes on the batter, how many errors have been committed, what inning the game is in and how many outs there are in the inning. The actual score in the game is the mission. The one with the most runs wins, it’s that simple. But if the score is the mission, then the stats are the metrics. They are what you are measuring. You measure the errors committed because they affect the mission. You measure the balls and strikes, the inning, outs in the inning, and how many runners were left on base. Why? Because these stats (metrics) affect the score (mission). That’s why you measure the things that lead you to the mission.”

Recently my wife Laura and I were flipping through Netflix to see if we could find a movie to watch. We ended up at a movie we have seen several times but we still love anyway. The movie is called Cast Away and stars Tom Hanks. The movie portrays an executive of operations for the company FedEx. The opening scene is of Tom Hanks’s character in a foreign country talking to the employees of a brand-new FedEx branch. As he is attempting to motivate the new staff, a package arrives. Inside the package is a watch. It was sent from Memphis, and the watch was keeping track of how long it took to get to the new branch overseas. He was measuring a specific item that supported their mission. The measurement was the length of time it took for a package to go from one location to another. This measurement is crucial for a company that promises speedy delivery to anywhere in the world. Metrics support the mission.

Define the Objective

Before you attempt to create metrics, it’s important to drill down a little further in your mission, to discover the primary objective of the mission and what that really looks like. For instance, at South Hills our mission is “Leading unchurched people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.” So let’s take a moment and dig down a little deeper. If we at South Hills desire to reach the unchurched, then we have to look at two major objectives that stand out: “leading” and “growing.” Are we leading people toward Jesus and are they growing in their relationship with him?

So now we have to dig a little deeper and ask three difficult questions:

Can you see how the metrics and the mission are going together? You explore the major objectives of your mission and then break down how to measure if you are fulfilling it. At our church we have to know what it looks like for us to lead people toward Jesus and to help them grow. In addition we have to know what a growing believer looks like so that we can measure whether or not that growth is happening at our campuses.

Let me break this down even further for you. At South Hills we combined the specific activities that are needed to fulfill the mission of our church and what could be measured. The activities that help fulfill the mission had to have the ability to be measured. If it can’t be measured, then how do we know if we are winning?

Remember when Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:35)? What was he doing? He was saying that the mission is to create disciples, and one way that we measure this is by our love for one another. It was a metric, a way to measure people’s progress. If you don’t have a system to measure progress, then you’re back to making assumptions. As we have learned, assumptions never work and they cause us to intentionally or unintentionally ignore the truth. This is why Jesus modeled for us the idea of setting metrics or indicators of spiritual growth.

At South Hills we have created some metrics that we believe not only fulfill our mission but let us know whether we are succeeding or assuming. We measure the number of people engaged in serving versus the average attendance on a weekend. We do the same measurement with our growth groups. We measure how many people are participating in growth groups versus our average attendance on a weekend. We monitor the giving, including percentages of people giving. We believe giving is a part of a “growing relationship with Jesus Christ,” which is our mission. We look at the percentage of people taking a step in receiving baptism. We measure those who attend Discover (our version of membership class) to see if new people are engaging in this first step. And of course we measure attendance; are we growing or simply maintaining?

The point of all of this is to identify the indicators that reveal whether or not your church is fulfilling its mission. You need to have an honest evaluation of the health of the church and the components of your strategy in order to answer the ultimate question, “Are we winning?” For you and your church, the metrics may be different than ours, but the point is for each of us to have them. Once you have identified them, create a system that allows you to quickly review and assess the church’s overall health and success. Here’s an idea for a system that may help you.

Creating a Dashboard

Have you ever been driving in your car and noticed on the dashboard the check engine light going on or the oil light flashing? It is letting you know that there is a problem somewhere. It is not going to fix the problem for you, but it does let you know that there is a problem and that you need to address it.

One of the techniques we have seen work best for us is to simply create a dashboard for our church. You can do it through an Excel spreadsheet. I have put a brief example below of what it may look like for you.

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You will notice that it states the particular subject you are measuring and the results for that week. This allows you to see at a glance what may or may not be happening in your church. You can set up the dashboard to show a weekly result or a monthly result based on what you would like to see. However, I would recommend that you review it on a regular basis. If you see the attendance going up but the offering is staying the same, then consider that a light flashing on your dashboard. If you notice attendance going up but people involved in serving or growth groups remain the same, then it may be telling you that you are attracting a crowd but not developing a core. This dashboard may require a little work to set up and to gather the data but, once you get into a rhythm, it becomes a simple process, providing insightful information for your church. It’s a way for you to truly and honestly keep a pulse on your church and to help you identify where you are winning and where you need to improve. Once again, mission and metrics going together.

I took Jeremy and the team through this process, teaching them that metrics are a way to measure if we are winning and succeeding. That’s where the tension started to build a little in the meeting. It wasn’t at all unhealthy; as a matter of fact I would say it was the exact opposite. It was very healthy. It was unfiltered debate about a subject that needed clarity. Team members began to discuss what a win looked like, what we should be measuring as a church, and if we are measuring the areas that will help build disciples of Christ. I remember one of the staff members said, “Why should we be measuring finances? That seems a little shallow.” Immediately another staff member on the other side of the table responded by saying, “We need to measure our giving because it’s one of the indicators of whether or not our congregation is maturing in their faith.” After a couple of hours of this type of back and forth dialogue, we were able to clearly identify the measurements that best complemented the mission of their church. The Excel spreadsheet was created, and it was time to start dropping in the numbers to track what was happening in the church. The excitement of the team continued to heighten. They could see it all coming together. They had created a mission that was simple and clear. They had developed a strategy to help them answer the “how” question. We had worked together to develop the values that would become the guiding principles for the church. Finally, we had put together a dashboard of metrics that would serve to help the church consistently review and evaluate whether they were winning or not.

We concluded our time together and set up another time for us to meet. The next time we came together, we were going to dive into number five of the seven unavoidable questions every leader must answer. The team was excited, hope was rising, dust was clearing, and we knew that God was positioning this church for continual and sustainable growth. We were over halfway through the seven unavoidable questions and already the environment and spirit of the team was changing. I couldn’t wait until our next session together.