Comments on: For Religious Organizations: Do Ratings & Lists Matter?

By: Paul A Rose Jr

Paul A Rose Jr — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In our church, we measure our “success” or effectiveness by the number of lives we touch and help. Now, bear in mind, our attendance on Sundays fluctuates between 15 and 25, generally speaking. We don’t even spike that much during Easter and Christmas. But we are committed to social programs. We had 40-50 kids at last year’s Vacation Bible School and some of them and their parents joined and some stop by on a more erratic basis. Some lives touched.

But we ran a Job & Ecomonic Fair earlier this year. There was no charge for admission – for “customers” or vendors. We had 25 non-profit and government agencies across the area came – Freddie Mac even flew in from Virginia – and manned tables. Almost 100 people came into our little church and spoke to the various agencies. In the end, we helped hal;f a dozen of them with potential jobs, twice that with housing issues and double that finding “lost” money (http://www.fltreasurehunt.org), getting rental assistance and continuing their education. The vendors all donated various gift cards and kitsch, for a giveaway basket that ended up valued at around $150, mostly in gas and grocery cards that went to a needy family.

Now, we only had a couple of these folks return to our church Sunday morning, but we consider it a huge success. The vendors want to know when we’re doing another one and we have a similarly-styled Health Fair scheduled for January (we have lots of retirees and people without insurance).

By: Darryn

Darryn — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, do we need to “measure” at all? I think all too often Churches/Ministries measure success by how many baptisms they have, how big their congregation is, etc. What Churches/Ministries should really be focused on is (forgive my terminology) building “quality” Christians. Once we have Christians who eminate Christ, “quantity” will naturally follow.

By: Aweaver3

Aweaver3 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is a great post, Phil. I do think we, as Christians need to have some type of measurment – but as you said, it’s not necessarily the same as what fortune 500 companies use. I think about the prophet Jeremiah. God gave him the task of spreading His message and told him, that overall the people won’t listen and he’d have a hard time. Jeremiah kept doing what God wanted him to do, even though the ‘numbers’ didn’t follow. If we looked at his ministry, through our usual standards of measurement today, we’d conclude that Jeremiah was a failure. However, God would say that Jeremiah was successful. He was definitely counter-cultural.
Allen Paul Weaver III
Author, Transition: Breaking Through the Barriers
and Speedsuit Powers (August 2009)
http://www.APW3.com

By: Hallie

Hallie — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A few years ago, I heard the leader of a church's denomination outline how their church-growth strategy paralleled McDonald's business plan. All I could think was, "that's the best you can do?"

By: Rick Wilson

Rick Wilson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is a trickey subject. On one side, we can't measure the way some businesses do in terms of ROI (return on investment) or in advertising "cost per point." The cost per soul is and always will be priceless. Can't be measured.

But on the other side I think we have to unpack the term "counter cultural." If we mean that we are always going against the grain of a hedonistic, self centered cultural environment then I'm with you 100%. But if that term means that we don't have to be accountable and have no real way of measuring effectiveness and impact (essentially an excuse for sloppiness) then I'm not with you.

As a producer pitching many ideas to Christian networks, the conversation would always get very challenging whenever I asked how many people were being reached. No one could really tell me. Without some kind of measurement that is independent as opposed to being anecdotal, we're lost and our programing/activity will lack relevance. Or in a church setting I've had people get very nervous when I asked for independent medical data to verify a healing.

Data is not just quantative it's qualitative. What kind of audience is this? How responsive are they? What do they value? How do they think? How do they behave? Without that knowledge we don't know who we're reaching. We're lost.