Jan Edmiston, a Presbyterian minister serving on Presbytery (regional) staff in the Chicago area, recently published a post entitled Measuring a Year in the Life of a Church. She’s got some good thoughts about possible questions to ask when considering whether a church is thriving or merely surviving. Here are a few samples:
- Can you identify an occasion in the last year when the congregation chose faith over fear?
- Is the church living off an endowment or do the tithes and offerings of the congregation cover all expenses?
- Can you name things your congregation tried that failed in the past year? (Note: if you didn’t fail at anything, you probably didn’t try anything new.)
- Can you name ten people who were spiritually transformed in your congregation in the past year? What did that look like?
- Can you identify one person who was identified as a new leader in the past year, and then share how she/he is being equipped for ministry? (Note: this is a person who has never been a leader before in the life of your church.)
What do you think? What questions would you ask?
One question that I would ask how much has the congregation grown in the past year?
Hello! Thanks for your comment. Here is another post about numbers and counting when it comes to church. https://maryharristodd.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/by-the-numbers/ Bishop Will Willimon of the UMC has a “dashboard” system in place in his conference that asks each congregation to keep close track of the numbers.