Church Growth and the Metrics That Matter
For leadership teams · Parts 1–5
Staff Discussion Guide
One conversation per Part. Read the chapters before you meet, open with the line from the book, and choose the questions that fit your team. Formation questions can become invasive if they are used badly. The goal is not interrogation. It is invitation.
Part 1
The Question Behind the Numbers
The goal is not spiritual ranking. It is spiritual visibility.
Chapter 1 · When Ministry Becomes the Answer
When someone asks how our church is doing, what do we usually describe first: programs or people?
Chapter 2 · The Annual Report
Read our most recent annual report or board update. What does it tell us about what happened in our people, and what does it leave out?
Chapter 3 · Are We Measuring What Jesus Is Forming?
If we tried to make formation more visible without ranking anyone, what would we need to be careful about?
Try this as a team
Each person privately writes a one-sentence answer to the book's opening question: When was the last time God spoke to you clearly? Share only if you choose.
Part 2
Why Our Metrics Stop Too Soon
Fruit through a person is not always the same thing as fruit in a person.
Chapter 4 · What Gets Counted Gets Attention
Which numbers do we celebrate most often from the platform? What might those celebrations be teaching our people to value?
Chapter 5 · Activity Is Not Formation
Where might we be treating busy, faithful activity as proof that someone is growing?
Chapter 6 · The Trouble With Proxy Metrics
Which of our numbers tell us someone was present? What do we assume they tell us beyond that?
Chapter 7 · What Happened After the Baptism?
What do we actually know about the people we baptized two or three years ago?
Try this as a team
List every number our church currently reports. Mark each one: does it describe participation, or formation?
Part 3
A Second Scorecard
Sometimes growth is visible not in the absence of failure but in the way failure is handled.
Chapter 8 · The Missing Scorecard
If we kept our organizational scorecard exactly as it is, what would a second, formation scorecard need to include?
Chapter 9 · Measure Direction, Not Perfection
Think of someone who is not yet mature but is clearly moving. What tells you they are moving?
Chapter 10 · Eight Signs of Formation
Of the eight signs, which does our church talk about most? Which gets the least attention?
Chapter 11 · Better Questions
Which participation question do we ask most often? Rewrite it together as a formation question.
Try this as a team
Each person completes the Formation Scorecard alone before the meeting. Discuss only what each person chooses to share.
Part 4
What This Could Look Like
We cannot recognize patterns of formation if we keep forgetting the moments that form them.
Chapter 12 · An Imagined Annual Report
Which section of the imagined report would be hardest for us to produce today, and why?
Chapter 13 · From Stories to Patterns
Which stories of change do we hear that never get gathered or noticed as a pattern?
Chapter 14 · Spiritual Memory
How do our people currently remember what God has done in them? What gets lost?
Chapter 15 · What Pastors Could Know
If you knew one thing about your people that you do not know now, how would it change the way you shepherd them?
Try this as a team
Choose one ministry. Together, write one paragraph of its next report about what happened in people, not what the ministry did. Compare it with the imagined annual report.
Part 5
Completing the Scorecard
A system that damages trust damages the very thing it is trying to understand.
Chapter 16 · Do Not Throw Away the Old Numbers
Which of our existing numbers are we tempted to drop? What would we lose if we did?
Chapter 17 · Begin With What You Can See
What is one small, trustworthy step we could take this quarter to begin seeing formation more clearly?
Try this as a team
Agree on one formation question your team will ask for the next 90 days. The book suggests a place to start: What are you obeying?