Measuring Success

My friend, Chris Folmsbee has posted an interesting post on how we measure success in youth ministry here. I wrote the following as a comment... but thought it might make a good post here too.

I really like these questions. it's really tricky isn't it. I think it was W. Edwards Deming who said that 90 precent of what matters in an organization can't be measured. (and he was talking about business, not the church)

How we measure or understand success is a very important question because it informs how we do things.

To really get this, we need to understand that unless a person or organization is really willing to do a lot of reflective work to understand his/her/their motivations, you probably don't know what all of your measures for success are.

The result of our conventional measures in the church lends itself to manipulation. Who hasn't felt the pressure to round the numbers up a bit when working for a church who values attendance figuires? or Wanted simply been a bit more preoccupied with getting more kids, because of the measurement standard? The problem with this type of measurement as well know is that the organization actually isn't getting the information is actually wants! I believe all churches actually want to see people grow closer to Christ, to build his kingdom, to serve others, to care for the least of these. (but this could be my assumption)
The problem is, that the conventional ways of measuring success in a church actually lead the church away from what it actually values.

I'm not saying we shouldn't measure, but I'm just advocating have a better understanding of what happens when we do and remembering that what we measure is only a very small part of what we actually value.

Over time measurement leads to reductionistic thinking.

Man I could talk about this for a long time... So I'll drop a few more thoughts.

I think that creation is critical for helping us understand how we can measure.

Some things I've learned from nature.
1. Nature doesn't count. A management accountant named H. Thomas Johnson taught me that.

2. Nothing grows forever. The other way of saying this is, everything dies. Which begs the question, what is a church life cycle and why do we see it as a bad thing when a church closes it's doors. To embrace life as a church, we must embrace that our local church will not last forever and that this is a good thing.

3. Reductionistic thinking leads to mechanistic thinking... which disrupts our understanding of nature.

Ok. I'll stop....
Thanks for the opportunity Chris...
I think this post might find it's way to my blog.