Measure What Matters

Redefine your scorecard of ministry success

By Kevin Foster

We are in a leadership crisis—and it’s costing the church. According to a recent Barna Group study, nearly 40% of pastors today are seriously considering quitting ministry altogether. But the leadership crisis we’re facing goes beyond those currently serving—it’s also about the next generation. Fewer and fewer young leaders are pursuing full-time ministry. Yes, financial limitations play a role, but there’s a deeper issue beneath the surface. I believe we need to redefine what success in ministry really means.

For too long, we’ve measured ministry success by attendance, buildings and budgets. But those metrics alone are no longer inspiring to many emerging leaders. In fact, some of the most passionate, mission-minded young leaders I’ve met are not rejecting ministry—they’re rejecting the narrow definitions of ministry success they’ve seen modeled.

And who can blame them? If we continue to hold up platform size as the primary marker of effectiveness, we’ll keep losing creative, courageous and even called leaders who want something more meaningful—something that looks like the ministry of Jesus, who ran to the margins, lifted the broken and flipped the script on status. If we want to raise up the next generation of leaders, we need to stop asking, “How many are sitting in the seats?” and start asking, “How many lives are being impacted beyond the walls?”

Why? Because for decades, we’ve been trained to believe that success equals Sunday attendance, tithes and offerings. We’ve been measured by how full the sanctuary is, how many seats are filled and how much money came in the offering plate. And let’s be honest—it’s crushing many of us.

Judging success only by numbers is a double-edged sword. When things are up, you feel great; when things are down, you feel like you’re failing. But what if God wants us to measure impact in a much broader way?

Measuring the right things matters. If we want to lead churches that truly reflect the heart of Jesus, we need to reevaluate how we define success. The metrics I mentioned above are important, but they’re incomplete. And they can be spiritually dangerous if we elevate them as the only measure of success. As leaders, we need to recognize how fragile these numbers are. A drop in attendance or giving can shake our confidence, discourage our team and leave us questioning our calling. I’ve been there; you probably have, too.

I’ve felt it myself. On Sundays when the sanctuary was full, I felt invincible. But when we were down by 60 people? I felt like a failure. Here’s the truth God has taught me over time: Success in the kingdom isn’t about how many people sit in your seats—it’s about how many lives you impact.

THE WAKE-UP CALL: COVID-19

The pandemic was brutal—but it forced a much-needed shift in how we define success. COVID-19 has often been called “the great disruptor,” and for us, it certainly lived up to that name. We had to face hard questions, such as, “Who are we really serving?” “How are we helping people beyond Sunday?” and, “Are we only focused on spiritual needs, or are we addressing social and economic needs, too?”

It was a significant shift from how we did ministry before the pandemic. In many ways, what began as a response to crisis ended up becoming a completely new model for ministry—one that has reshaped the heart and focus of our church.

Before, our efforts were primarily centered on spiritual impact, and that will always remain our foundation. But we began to sense that God was calling us to go deeper. Instead of only preparing people for heaven, we felt compelled to bring a piece of heaven to people’s lives here on earth.

We started asking new questions, such as, “What if the church could help people put food on the table?” “What if we could help families stay housed and employed?” and, “What if the church became the center of healing, provision and transformation in our community?”

That shift in mindset changed everything for us. We began to see church not just as a place for worship, but as a launchpad for hope, where people could find both spiritual renewal and practical support. It redefined what we believed the church could and should be.

Today, we’re impacting about 6,000 people a month, not because they all sit in our services, but through grocery giveaways, senior citizen delivery programs, patrons in our event center, families in our preschool and people connected through our church family.

For years, our thrift store was part of this reach, employing and supporting people in need. Even after we paused that ministry at the end of last year, our impact has only grown. People who had never attended our church began saying, “LifeBridge is that church that really helps people.” Some assumed we were a megachurch because of our outreach footprint. We are not a megachurch in size, but we have a mega impact, and I believe every church, no matter its size, can redefine its metrics for success and multiply its reach.

What could this look like for your church?

Food ministry: grocery giveaways, food pantries or partnerships with local agencies

Clothing drives: regular distribution to families in need

Housing support: helping people secure stable housing

Job creation: hiring underemployed or hard-to-employ people within your ministries or businesses

Community services: preschools, event centers, counseling, after-school programs

When you measure success only by Sunday attendance or offering totals, you miss the full picture of how God is working. But when you shift your mindset, when you start seeing your preschool, your food bank, your event center or your job-training program as ministry, everything changes.

A BIBLICAL SHIFT

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of the sheep and the goats. And notice what He celebrates:

“‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me”’ (Matthew 25:35-36).

Jesus doesn’t say, “Well done—you packed out your Sunday services.” He says, “Well done—you served the least of these.”

What if we began to measure church success based on the metrics Jesus laid out here in Matthew?

How many people has your church fed?

How many people has your church clothed?

How many sick people have you comforted or guided back to health?

How many prisoners or returning citizens is your church actively reaching?

Jesus redefines success around compassion, action and proximity to the broken. If we want to hear, “Well done,” maybe we need to start counting differently.

The early church understood this. Acts 2:44,47 says: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ... And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

What was the result of this kind of sacrificial, holistic love? God brought the growth. When a church sets its heart on meeting the needs of the broken, God blesses it—sometimes in ways we never expect. But that kind of growth doesn’t always happen overnight. And it shouldn’t be the motive.

We don’t serve the broken to spark the latest church-growth trend. We serve the broken because it’s what Jesus told us to do. Growth is not the goal; obedience is. But here’s the beautiful truth: when you are obedient, God brings the growth.

Today, our church is 25% larger than we were before COVID. I give all the credit to God and to a simple, consistent commitment to doing what Jesus described in Matthew 25. The more we focused on running to the brokenness and the less we obsessed over Sunday metrics, the more people began showing up on Sunday mornings.

Obedience first. Growth second—that’s the kingdom way.

NEW METRICS TO CONSIDER

If we are serious about becoming hubs of transformation, we must expand our scoreboard. Here are some new metrics to consider when running to the brokenness:

Spiritual Impact. Are people encountering Jesus? It’s important to clarify: we’re not promoting what some might call a social gospel. Running to the brokenness doesn’t mean we forget the main mission; it means we live it out more fully. We exist to see people enter a thriving relationship with God and to take as many people to heaven with us as we can.

Are they growing in discipleship? Are they learning, growing and being shaped by Scripture and community over time? Are they serving and using their gifts? When people come alive in Christ, they begin to serve others. Are you creating space for that to happen?

Social Impact. How many people are you feeding? Since the pandemic, we’ve had the honor of distributing (as of this writing) 1.6 million pounds of food. We live in what’s considered the third most food-insecure region in the United States. This is an obvious area of brokenness in our backyard, and an obvious area where the church must respond.

How many are you clothing, helping to find housing or walking with through crisis? Before we paused our thrift store ministry, we were clothing approximately 1,500 people per month. Each one of those individuals mattered deeply to God.

How are you helping the most vulnerable in your city? Every community has hidden needs. Maybe it’s children in foster care, seniors who can’t drive or refugee families just trying to find their footing. If you’re not sure where to begin, ask God to open a door for you. You never know how that open door will provide a path for you to impact your community in a creative way!

Economic Impact. Are you helping the unemployed or underemployed? We’ve seen God use our social enterprises to employ people coming out of incarceration, adults with disabilities and single parents who just needed a chance.

Are you helping people gain skills to provide for their families? Whether it’s job training, resume prep or helping someone get certified in a trade, you open the door to spiritual transformation when you help people thrive economically.

By embracing these expanded metrics—spiritual, social and economic—you’ll begin to see your church not just as a place people attend, but as a force for transformation in your city.

SCRIPTURE TO ANCHOR THIS SHIFT

James 2:14-17 reminds us:

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

It was a significant shift from how we did ministry before the pandemic. In many ways, what began as a crisis response evolved into a completely new model—one that’s now central to who we are.

We used to focus almost exclusively on spiritual impact—and that will always be our foundation. But during those disruptive years, we began to sense the Lord asking us to go further. We didn’t just want to prepare people for heaven; we wanted to bring glimpses of heaven into people’s lives right now. That meant giving people the ability to provide for their families, put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.

We started asking bold questions such as, “What if the church could help someone find a job?” “What if we could stop the cycle of homelessness?” and, “What if the church became the most trusted place in a city, not just for prayer, but for provision, employment, restoration and belonging?”

That shift in mindset changed everything. Our view of what the church could be—and should be—was completely transformed.

Isaiah 58:10 gives us a powerful promise: “If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”

We’ve seen this promise come to life in our church. God has blessed us in countless ways—ways that don’t always show up on the traditional scorecard. Sure, all three of our services are now packed, and we’re actively looking for a larger sanctuary (which, admittedly, is a good problem to have). But I need to be clear: we don’t run to the brokenness just to fill seats on Sunday.

Yes, I want people in church on Sundays. I want lives transformed by the Word, worship and community. But that’s not why we serve. That’s not why we go into the streets, open food pantries, build job programs or start social enterprises.

We do it because God commanded us to.

Isaiah doesn’t say, “If you build a bigger church, your light will rise.” He says, “If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry ... then your light will rise in the darkness.” That’s the metric God cares about. That’s the kind of ministry He blesses.

We’ve seen that blessing, not just in attendance, but in impact. Not just in budgets, but in lives changed.

So, if your church is running to the brokenness and not seeing the traditional results right away, keep going. Heaven is tracking things differently. Your faithfulness, your compassion, your obedience—those are the real metrics that matter.

Let’s stop measuring only what happens inside the walls of the sanctuary. Let’s start measuring how much light is breaking through the darkness because we chose to spend ourselves on behalf of others. That’s the kind of church I want to build. That’s the kind of leader I want to be.

IT’S TIME TO EXPAND THE SCORECARD

You might be asking, “Are you just moving the goalposts so churches can feel better about mediocre Sundays?”

No—absolutely not. What I’m suggesting is that for decades, the church has had its goalposts set too narrowly. It’s time to redefine the goalposts—not lower them.

The local church is perfectly positioned to meet the spiritual, social and economic needs of its community, frankly, better than any other organization or faith-based nonprofit. And when we start measuring that impact, we won’t just survive—we’ll thrive. And just like in Acts 2, the Lord will add to our number daily.

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Kevin Foster is the visionary founder and lead pastor of LifeBridge Community Church in Fresno, California. Kevin also serves on the board of Link Care Counseling Center and has spearheaded a groundbreaking $23 million affordable housing initiative in the Central Valley. His dedication to social impact led to the creation of Mint Thrift, a community-driven thrift store providing affordable essentials, and The ACTS Foundation, a nonprofit that has fed over 100,000 people and distributed more than 3.4 million pounds of food. Kevin’s new book is Run to the Brokenness: How Your Church Can Become the Center of Your Community, from which this article is adapted.