Are You Measuring What’s Best for a Disciple-Making Church?

In this month’s blog series, we are looking at how to develop a Dream Disciple. In addition to these blogs, we are providing a FREE resource for you and your church team.

Today’s blog is an excerpt from this resource that explains the negative impact that is happening in your church because you don’t have a Dream Disciple. (Miss out on week 1 of this series? Click here to go back and read.)

How does your church measure success?

Every church measures some form of activity. How many people attended worship, how many people are serving, how many are attending a group or class, etc. Though this is important to measure, it isn’t the BEST WAY to measure success. One of the greatest myths in ministry is that program activity equals individual transformation. Just because someone is attending one of your church programs doesn’t mean that they are being transformed.

One of the greatest myths in ministry is that program activity equals individual transformation.

When we only measure people’s attendance in our programs, we make program activity the end goal, not individual transformation. Though there is a correlation between program activity and individual transformation, we must not equate them as the same. Just like measuring hits in a baseball game or assists in a basketball game is an important measurement, it isn’t the one that we use to measure who wins the game.

Without a clear picture of the disciple that we are trying to develop, we have no clarity on what is a win. This leaves the staff confused on why we do certain programs and if they are succeeding. Additionally, because our congregation doesn’t have a clear picture of who they are to become as they follow Jesus, they settle for believing that maturity is just about attending more programs. The result is a staff and congregation that replace disciple-making with program management, thus leaving the staff dissatisfied and the congregation apathetic.

As church leaders, we must move beyond only having an activity scoreboard, and develop a transformational scoreboard. The Dream Disciple helps you do just that. Without a Dream Disciple you will measure what is easiest, but not what is best. When you get an inspiring picture of the disciple you are developing, you then begin to keep score on the right scoreboard.

When Christ measures the health of the church, he doesn’t count them, he weighs them.

Focusing on attendance to worship services, small groups, and volunteer teams is not wrong, but it is incomplete. We must push the finish line back and not just measure collective activity, but individual transformation.

We work with church teams every week all across the country. In the graphic, you can find a Dream Disciple from one of the churches we have served and the impact that they have seen because of it.