This post was previously written by Steve Pike on April 10th. Since Steve is out of town, we will be revisiting some classic posts and updating previous church planter stories over the next couple of weeks.

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So, in our last post we wondered about whether our old faithful gauge of missional progress is really all that meaningful. What does it really mean when seats are filled or unoccupied on Sunday morning? It is certainly more fun to preach to a full house than to an empty room. And I don’t mean to downplay the fact that God does use the foolishness of preaching to confound the wise. People do make life changing decisions as a result of being present when the anointed Word is communicated with passion and integrity. Please don’t misinterpret what I’m trying to say. Sermons are good. People listening and responding to sermons is good. But, is that all there is? And again, I must ask, how much can we learn about the spiritual vitality of a group of people assembled in a church meeting on a Sunday morning? Is the person there because they are seeking God? Are they there because they are trying to please their spouse or a friend? Are they there because they hope to make a business contact? Are they there because that’s what they always do and they would feel guilty if they weren’t there? Are they there just to see the spectacle of a preacher living on the roof and hoping their their presence in a room will convince him to come down? (see part one of MMM) And what impact might their reason for being there have on how much benefit they receive from the experience? So, are head counts a reliable gauge of spiritual formation?

For now, let’s just agree that “attending” a service might mean something potentially positive is going on. The other typical measuring tool we commonly use is the amount of money being placed in the offering. Here again, we must wonder what the spiritual significance is. Actually, it probably means more than just sitting in a pew. But a head count is a head count, whereas a dollar given by one person might reflect the same level of sacrifice as a thousand dollars given by another person. So measuring spiritual vitality by volume of money placed in plate is a tricky venture. Again, it’s hard to know what it means. Is the money given as an act of obedience? Is it an act of stewardship born out of a committed relationship to Christ? Is it given out of guilt or superstition? Is it an effort to make a deal with God? Is it given with the hope of “five fold,” “ten fold,” or “hundred fold” return? When the offering is counted, does the amount received have any connection to what is really going on in the hearts of the givers? Is it possible that increasing offerings have no connection to increasing spiritual vitality? Could increased offerings even indicate spiritual problems?

As I mentioned in part one of this series of blog posts, this is an especially serious problem for determining the missional impact of new churches. Books are written about how to plant churches that “grow” fast and big. The way we know that they grow fast and big is by counting how many noses are present and how many nickels are placed in the offering. However, if all we are doing is moving noses from one pew to another and nickels from one plate to another, then we are just playing a shell game. Growing “fast” might not mean anything.

But again, in the interest of giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt, let’s agree that more people and money might be better than less people and money. The problem is the word “might.” If our most commonly used measuring tools give “muddy” feedback at best, then how do we really know what’s going on? Or, to put it another way,…if noses and nickels serve as dubious indicators of the spiritual vitality of a church, then how do we know if we are making progress? What else might be going on that is tangible enough to measure and might actually indicate spiritual progress?

Allow me to humbly and cautiously suggest some possible helpful measurements of missional movement that might begin to clear up our picture of Kingdom progress. The reason noses and nickels are popular metrics is because at least they are finite tangible quantities that can be counted for sure. At first glance, finite and tangible seem better than vague subjective statements of progress like, ” I think our people are deeper in love with Jesus than they were last year at this time.” So what might be some other very tangible activities that might indicate missional progress?

1. Relational connections- The root of discipleship is most commonly a relationship. In fact, discipleship is by definition an interpersonal activity. Our primary model is Jesus. And he told his disciples to go “make” more (disciples that is). A partial picture of progress could be counting our relational connections. Some contemporary examples would be the story of John Van Pay in Helotes, Scott Bruegman in Denver or Trinity Jordan in Layton, Utah. These guys spent huge amounts of time developing a relational network before they ever had a public meeting where they could count heads and money.

2. Conversations- Brian McLaren encourages us to “count conversations.” If the “root” of discipleship is relationship, perhaps the “stalk” of discipleship is the conversation. And EVERY conversation has missional value, so count all of them. Sometimes we just need to talk about the weather or our favorite sports teams. Those conversations lay the foundation of connection that create the opportunities for our conversations to go deeper.

3. Prayer- Prayer might be the water of discipleship. Intentionality of prayer for those we are connecting with can be counted. Specifically setting aside time to pray for our friends is a wonderful way to partner with God in His process of helping the “outsiders” to know Him. The amount of time is not as important as counting the intentional pause to pray specifically for a person we know.

4. Intentional community connections- This is more of a corporate measuring tool. You might ask your team, “How many connections do we have that place us in proximity to people who are or might be far from God?” Possibilities might include social clubs, sports teams, hobby clubs, civic organizations, etc. Count up the collective connections and see how you are doing.

These are just some ideas to ponder. There are probably other great categories of activities that can be tangibly measured. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But it’s a start. In my next post on measuring missional movement I’d like to explore another dimension of this whole issue by thinking about the question “How much of your activity as a church should be devoted to connecting with those who are far from God?” To give you a hint of what I’m thinking…a funnel might be part of the answer.