It IS about the numbers…

I always find it amazing when I talk to planters and they don’t know the numbers from the previous weekend. The more I am in church planting, the more I realize the best way to evaluate is by the numbers. By the time I leave on Sundays I have the attendance numbers in my hand and first thing Monday morning I have the offering numbers on my desk.

Why? Because these two things allow me to evaluate if what we are doing is effective or not.

For instance, if our numbers go up in during a certain teaching series, I know this is teaching that our people are connecting with. For example we did a marriage series where our numbers went through the roof, this let me know our people needed to hear this stuff. We do a fair amount of marketing in the community and based on our numbers I can tell if that months advertising worked. For example did a big children’s push this month in our marketing and our children’s numbers are only a little up. That lets me know we didn’t connect in that advertising.

As I plan for the next year on my teaching calendar, I look at the numbers to decide when I need to do felt need teaching or more insider teaching. I am not going to teach a series focused on our church when the numbers say that is the time we have the most visitors coming.

I also watch the giving because it allows me to know if our people are buying into the vision. It allows me to know for the future when our giving will drop so I can budget around it.

Watch for patterns and don’t freak out over one week things but watch the numbers. They do drive things.

I think pastors think they sound spiritual when they say aren’t concerned about numbers. But numbers tell the story and will help you lead better.