Summary of the book " Effectiveness by the Numbers" by Bill Hoyt.
Chapter 1 The Fear of Numbers
There is an ongoing debate among church leaders about the importance of counting things to determine the effectiveness in our churches.
Some churches fail to count altogether, some fail to count accurately, some fail to count the right things. For some, there is a fear that counting will reveal what is really happening (or not happening) or the reply that God has called us to be simply be faithful, without applying the Godly principle of fruitfulness.
Jesus clearly taught " You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last" John 15:16. I don't know about you, but I am wanting to hear from my Master, "well done, good and faithful servant" and I think the good refers to fruitfulness.
Chapter 2 If You Could Only Count One Thing
If there was only one thing to measure what should it be? Conversions. If our purpose is to make disciples, we should be counting the number of conversions and the number of those in each stage of development as a devoted follower of Christ. We could also determine the people cost per conversion (by dividing the average attendance in that local church by the number of converts in that year) and the dollar cost per conversion (by dividing the annual expense budget by the number of converts in that year). Perhaps that is too business-like for you but it does help us understand how effective we are at reaching our community and gives us a benchmark to compare future results to - to see if we are becoming more fruitful and faithful.
Chapter 3 How Many and How Often
In our culture, we esteem a pastor based on the Sunday morning attendance figure. We usually define importance and success by worship attendance. Who doesn't believe at least in part that Rick Warren is more important than a pastor who has laboured for 20 years in a church of 125 in a town of 600? The reality is that attendance does not measure importance and attendance does not measure success. Attendance does measure influence and it does measure trends. It can also measure outward focus. Attendance figures can also be used to analyze market share - or the percentage of your community that attend, and it can be used to determine the reflection your church is of your community - are the demographics similar? With a bit more work, we can determine how often people attend per month and if the answer is not satisfactory, develop strategies to improve it.
Chapter 4 How Many Stay
While many churches do measure attendance, most do not measure visitor retention. What's your retention rate? How do you define visitor? In order to retain 30% of your visitors, you will need to discover who your visitors are, follow up on them (with more than a letter), create numerous effective entry points for them to find relationships in the body and track their progression through your discipleship/assimilation process. This is hard work and takes discipline. Most churches do not do this, perhaps due to fear of failure, or fear of growth or an unwillingness to change, but ultimately it is because of an absence of passion for lost people.
Chapter 5 How Many Serve
As congregations grow and the ministry needs grow along with them, there is or course a need to get more people invlved. Since most church programs are conducted at the church facility, people begin to believe that ministry happens at church. The term mission is reserved for those who leave home and serve full time in another country. What is now being described as being missional is the mindset that defines vocation as serving God and our avocation as whatever we do for a paycheck. The attitude is that wherever they are, no matter what they are doing, they are on the mission field and their purpose is to serve God there. Lay involvement is critical to congregational spiritual health for a couple of reasons - one is simply to keep people busy doing the right things, the other is that four people doing something is easier than one person doing it. But how do we measure involvement? It is important to measure three arenas of involvement: serving in congregational life, serving in community life and serving full time in world mission.
Chapter 6 Who Are Your New Leaders
We all know churches that flourished, some long enough for people to take notice - and notes on how they did it. Unfortunately for many, after a time they plateaued and declined. How and why? Primarily because they failed to raise up new leaders. Churches that effectively develop their own ongoing supply of leaders never depend on a few leaders to develop more leaders. They have a system for developing leaders. They identify, recruit, train and deploy leaders. Measuring the number of people in each of these 4 stages and comparing that from year to year will tell the story of how well you are doing at developing leaders.
Chapter 7 Do You Really Grow By Staying Small?
Small groups are essential to the health and growth of churches. Two factors contribute to the 200 barrier, leadership - the pastor's and/or the board's inability or unwillingness to change their leadership style or structure, and the lack of small groups. Churches often inadvertently limit small group participation by failing to offer a variety of groups organized around different interests and purposes. Every church that is successful in incorporating a high percentage of people into small groups offers an extensive menu of small groups organized around a wide and balanced array of purposes. Count your small group participation and campare it year to year. Count how many types of groups you have - spiritual disciplines and growth, evangelistic purposes, interests, recovery, mission and ministry, inward, outward etc.
Chapter 8 What's More Important Than Dollars
Ministry and stewardship are more important than money. If money were the thing, Jesus would have honoured the major donors and the big givers, not the widow and her two small coins. All churches count income, but few count tithing. Though no demanded of us, the tithe still has meaning. Those of us who understand God's grace and generosity in our lives should consider the tithe as the foundation of our giving. Tithing is one indicator of spiritual maturity. Teach principles like starting with a tithe, work toward a tithe, get out of debt, tithe to your church, give more than a tithe, be a cheerful giver, pastor staff and lay leaders must model a tithe and more giving, and lift the veil of secrecy around giving records. What is your current percentage of tithers? Start by determining the number of households in your congregation. How many of them tithe? (Just ask them - in a survey, without names - do you tithe, yes or no?) Divide the number reporting that they tithe by the number of households in our congregation and you have your starting point. Strive for 66% or more.
Chapter 9 What Product are You Producing Anyway
Wise and effective leaders start with the end in sight. Your mission is the purpose for which God created you. Your vision is a word picture of what it will look like when you arrive at your missional destination. An objective is something you intend to attain. Goals are the specific, measurable milestones established to guide you on your way to accomplishing your objective. Most churches identify the mission and vision but fail to think through and articulate the objective. In a nutshell, churches are in the disciple-making business. We should be producing mature followers of Christ. Are you succeeding at that? How do you measure spiritual maturity? Define what a spiritual mature person would look like in your setting in 4 or 5 points, and a clarifying statement to that point and start measuring it - use a survey to ask people to evaluate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 how they measure up.
Bill Hoyt also included a helpful appendix describing some clear methods of measuring each of these key areas, using an excel spreadsheet to help you get started at it.
I was at a seminar in September '07 with Bill Hoyt. I highly recommend this book.
Title: Effectiveness By The Numbers
Subtitle: Counting what Counts in the Church
Author: William R. Hoyt
©2007 by William R. Hoyt
Publisher: Abbington Press
ISBN-13: 978-0-687-64175-8
124 pgs |
