Take an Orbital Approach to More Effectively Measure Health and Vitality

For a decade or more there has been an on-going debate on the best methods for measuring church vitality and health. Decades ago membership was the primary gold standard for measuring health and growth. However, that shifted instead to measuring Sunday morning worship attendance a couple of decades ago. Today, neither one of those common measurements are considered  best practices by most. However, there is no clear consensus on how to measure church health and vitality in today’s church. This lack of consensus is especially true when it comes to denominational judicatory leaders and the local church leaders.

In today’s culture, I believe health and vitality is best measured in relationships and movement. How are you increasing the number of people the church is engaged with? How are those you are engaged with growing deeper in relationship with one another, the community, and with Jesus Christ? How are those engaged becoming more Christ-like and a disciple maker?

In working with churches over the past few years, I have begun to ask this question, “How many people are in your church’s orbit?” In unpacking this question with leaders, I ask them to begin thinking about all the people who are connected to the church in some fashion. As they begin to think through people, I ask them to begin considering where each person might be in their journey of becoming a Christ follower. Thinking about concentric circles with the center being a deep relationship with Christ and a disciple maker, where would the various people in “orbit” around your church fall at the moment?

The outer ring of orbit might include those served in your church’s food pantry, scouts who use the building, and people who have interacted once or twice with your church through an event, program, or ministry. Those represented on the next ring might be seekers or those who encounter your fringe ministries. Next might be those who are engaged followers followed by committed followers, and finally your mature followers. Each church can name and define the various rings of their orbit to best fit their culture and context.

This measuring tool allows people to identify where they are on their discipleship journey. It also helps us identify if the number of people in the church’s orbit is growing. The movement of people into a deeper relationship with the others in the church’s orbit and deepening discipleship with Christ can be recognized. In this model, ministry leaders not only help their team engage in their focused ministry area, but team leaders also assist those serving and those who are encountered in the ministry with their next step in their discipleship journey. This shift in how ministry team leaders equip and deploy those on the ministry team creates a more holistic discipling approach and understanding.

This model takes a more comprehensive approach to church health and vitality. While measuring worship attendance captures a snapshot of those attending one hour a week, this tool helps identify and measure ministry effectiveness 24/7/365. Baptisms, professions of faith, and worship attendance are typically lag measures. This approach provides more lead measures and allows any needed shifts to be made more quickly and easily.

How does your church board/council measure its health and vitality? How effective are your current measurements in determining its health? Who is responsible in your church for measuring health and vitality? What is the frequency of church health and vitality discussions? If needed, how are adjustments made towards greater health? Gather a group of your church leaders for a discussion of this very important topic.