Should the Church Measure Results?

Measuring business results is straight forward – return on invested capital. There isn’t a single, consistent metric for measuring parochial institutions because the mission is more nebulous.

How do you define a win for a parish? What is the wildly important goal for a Catholic school? How do you measure results for your RCIA program or children’s ministry?

If measuring results is important but difficult, what are parishes supposed to do? How do they measure key metrics without losing their soul? The key is to forget measuring outputs against inputs and start measuring against mission accomplishment only.

How are Catholic institutions to measure key metrics without losing their soul? The key is to stop trying to measure outputs against inputs and start measuring against mission accomplishment only. Click To Tweet

This requires a radical commitment to keeping score and being focused on tracking the right things.

How do you know when your favourite sports team is winning? There’s an enormous scoreboard that tells the story. The best scoreboards capture all the relevant metrics in a compelling manner.

Have you ever noticed that people play differently when they keep score? Keeping score helps everyone stay focused, alert and ‘in the game.’

Have you ever noticed that people play differently when they keep score? Keeping score helps everyone stay focused, alert and 'in the game.' Click To Tweet

Many leaders in the non-profit and Church world measure one thing, and this intuitively, busyness. But busyness doesn’t always correlate with advancing the mission.  On a personal level, busyness can become an anesthetic to deaden the pain of a barren interior life. On a communal level, busyness can be a distraction from doing the necessary work of narrowing the focus, pruning initiatives, clarifying a few wins and measure progress.

Busyness in ministry can become an anesthetic to deaden the pain of a barren interior life. Click To Tweet

The key is to examine our ministries from a results perspective not an activity perspective.  This statement might be a bit shocking. You might be thinking, “Focus on results? That sounds a bit corporate don’t you think?”

This is not business speak. I wholeheartedly reject the idea that the path to greatness for ministry organizations is to become more like a business. The reality is, most businesses are mediocre in accomplishing their mission, goals and objectives.  Why would we want to import the practices of mediocrity into the ministry? Our mission is just too important!

The language we need to embrace in the Church is the language of greatness, not business.  If any organization should be radically committed (even fanatical) to becoming great, it is the Church. Our mission is the most important mission in the world.

It will take discipline and persistence but we can find ways to keep score year over year to measure progress in our Catholic institutions.

Here are a few examples of things that could be measured:

Using a simple 5-point Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree or strongly disagree), parishes can survey their congregation using this question once-a-year: In the past year the parish has helped me start or deepen my relationship with Jesus Christ. The data generated from this simple measurement might well inform programmatic decisions.

Catholic schools can survey graduating students with questions like this: The biggest benefit from my time in Catholic school has been: a) Academic Development, b) Extracurricular Opportunities, c) Social/Emotional Benefits d) Spiritual Formation f) None of the above.

Pastors may see the value in measuring their youth ministry program. Using the same 5-point Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree or strongly disagree), parish youth ministry coordinators can survey their participants annually with this question: During my time in youth ministry, my desire to share my faith with others has increased.

I’m sure there are better questions that can be asked, my point is this: You cannot manage what you do not measure.

It is very difficult if not impossible to make improvements or facilitate necessary changes if you never stop to define current reality.

You cannot manage what you do not measure. It is very difficult if not impossible to make improvements or facilitate necessary changes if you never stop to define current reality. Click To Tweet

Making a commitment to measuring results is like re-committing to the mission. Measuring results helps you know if you are winning or not and with that knowledge you can take action.