Church Performance

I am not a pastor but to me a sign of an effective church would be a GODLY one.

I am happy to say that for 23 years I was under a pastor (he died 6 years ago, he was pastor for 35 years) who before he died and even now, had a church that never had any decentions, that I know of, the people were Godly, you didn't have people sleeping with other people. I am surprised to hear so many churches having sin issues within their congregations, not ours. you had parents raising children who went on to become missionaries or some kind of service for the Lord if not marrying into it. You have people who REALLY know their bibles (thanks to his excellent expostiory preaching) and were able to share God's word effctively with the unsaved. We are in a very transient area so people do come and go for business reasons. our church is very ethnically diverse with everyone getting along.
There is real joy and a kind spirit with a family oriented attitudes to everyone in the church. And above all it is a SAFE church were one will not feel judged-saved or not.

to me all good signs of a successful healthy church. a church of about 350 people
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Outside of the professions of faith from new believers I would include the following:

1. Church attendance vs. Church membership.

2. First time visitors unknown by pastor or staff.

3. Ratio of tithers to membership.

4. Ratio of membership active in service vs. simple attenders.

5. Number of those in membership considered mature in spiritual teachings.

 

I'm sure that there are others much wiser than I that can expand upon this list better. You are welcome.

 

I am sure some will disagree with our assessment, but here are some of our primary points of evaluation:

1. BITS -- butts/bottoms in the seats
How many people are coming? We are in a very unchurched area and our weekend services serve as our entry point, so how many people are attending is very important to us to make sure we are being missional.

2. Baptisms -- are people getting it? Are people crossing the line of faith and following in obedience.

3. Stories -- are we consistently hearing stories of transformation. We do not have a public invitation, so stories of transformation are important to us.

4. Small Groups -- are we moving people from attenders to participants.

5. The Thirds principle -- we want our church to strike a balance between believers, new believers, and unbelievers (a third of each group). I think a healthy, evangelistic minded church will seek to keep a healthy balance in these three types of attendees.

Just some random thoughts.

 

I would add the following:

1. How active is the church in missions? Does the church support individual missionaries or missionary organizations?

2. What outreach does the church have?

3. How many called to full time service from the church?

4. How faithful is the church to the fundamentals of Scripture?

5. Does the church have standards for their leaders? Is the standard enforced? Does the staff lead by example?

6. Are the people challenged during sermons and in Sunday School?

7. What is the ratio of Sunday School attendance to church attendance?

8. This one is difficult to evaluate, but are the people who were saved last year still in church?

I'm not big on numbers. I like to see lives transformed by the power of the Word. One soul completely sold out for Christ will be much more effective than a hundred casual Christians.