A new kind of scorecard
What we measure matters.
Most of my engineering school classes are long forgotten. But I can remember a particular class on nuclear reactor instrumentation—the science of measuring things—that has stuck with me. Don’t worry; this isn’t going to turn into a science class.
The principle that was drilled into us was that measuring things is a tricky business for three reasons:
The process of measuring something changes the thing we are measuring.
The mechanisms we use to measure are not always consistent.
If we base decisions on poor measurements, we’ll end up with poor outcomes.
These principles are relevant to virtually every sphere of life. In the context of discipleship, the question we need to ask is: What do we measure, how do we measure it, and why do we measure it?
This “scorecard question” is essential because the metrics we focus on will inevitably be the ones we invest our time and resources into improving. Herein lies the challenge: metrics for discipleship are hard. But they’re not impossible.
The typical metrics of congregation size and budget size do not help measure discipleship. So, what should we measure?
In discipleship, the core metrics should focus on:
Our core unit that reproduces disciples (e.g., Simple Church, house church, discipleship group, whatever group)
Engagement within that unit
Leaders in training
Evangelistic engagement
Here are the specific metrics we measure on an ongoing basis:
The number of Simple Churches: This is our core disciple-making context.
The kind of engagement weekly within each Simple Church:
Non-believers
Members
Leaders in training
Leaders
Our total capacity for disciple-making is essentially a function of metric #1. We’ve learned that a discipleship context, like a house church, has a maximum size before it begins to stall out. A group can manage only so many simultaneous relationships, so we focus on creating new disciple-making contexts as often as possible so that there is always space for new people.
The measurements in metric #2, particularly who is engaged, tell us where to focus our energy. For example, if there are no non-believers in our Simple Churches, then we are not being effective on mission. However, if there are no leaders in training, then our future capacity is constrained.
We also track other metrics, such as average monthly engagement, large gathering engagement, and evangelism engagement. However, the baseline metrics listed above form the core of our scorecard.
Data accelerates leadership development
Our leadership teams can’t be in every city at once - or even every month. So, our data is essential to give us a comprehensive picture of what is happening on the ground. That data feeds our decision-making processes.
For example, we recently leveraged our data to invite anyone who had participated in more than two events in the last six weeks to a leadership development event in the new year. This resulted in invitations to 160 prospective leaders—with less than five minutes of work.
We can identify prospective leaders automatically because we prioritize a quality scorecard with quality data. While this doesn’t replace the relational nature of leadership development, it allows us to complement it.
So, how do we reliably measure all of this?
The key is automation and culture.
1. Automation
Our software, Engage Spaces, is the core tool we use to automate tracking and aggregation. Engage Spaces allows us to automatically collect qualitative and quantitative data from our leaders on a recurring basis without any administrative intervention.
We can survey any subset of our discipleship network at our chosen frequency - including attendance, photos, qualitative or quantitative questions, stories, celebrations - you name it.
2. Culture
Not everyone gets excited about numbers and data—and we totally get that. That’s why we regularly share the “why” of the data in team meetings. We also integrate storytelling by encouraging people to upload photos and share celebrations. We then collate this information into regular communication to encourage disciple-makers across our movement.
If you’re looking for suggestions on what to measure or how to build a scorecard to track impact, subscribe for more posts.
If you’re looking for help with impact tracking, reach out to the team at Engage Spaces. They’d love to help.