Determining Ministry Effectiveness

Typically ministry effectiveness in the church is measured by analyzing the:

1. Number of conversions to Christ.
2. Amount of offerings.
3. Numbers of people in attendance at events.

While these might be good and helpful, they do not show the complete picture and may only have a minor correlation to the church’s main purpose—making disciples! Hence the following questions would serve well in determining ministry effectiveness: 

• Are we externally or internally focused?
• Are we developing programs or people?
• Are we church-oriented or Kingdom-oriented?
• Are we making church members or disciples?
• Are we training and releasing leaders for the Kingdom?

It is vitally important that we incorporate a process that measures and assesses how we are doing at what really matters. For example, consider the question regarding “church-oriented” vs. “Kingdom-oriented”—do we measure membership or missional outreach conducted over a period of time? As stewards of the church’s mission to “make disciples of all nations” we will one day give an account to God as to how well we did. So besides the three more traditional or typical measures stated at the beginning, here are some suggestions:

1. The number of people in small groups/classes.
2. The number of leaders trained to lead small groups.
3. The level of maturity of both disciples and leaders.
4. The number of people serving in volunteer ministries.

[Next week we will discuss the disciplines for an organizational serving leader.]