Metrics

by Steve Cordle

“How are your church’s groups going?”

When you respond to a question like that you used some measurement benchmarks which indicated to you whether the groups were doing well, fair, or not so well.

When it comes to your groups, what do you measure? Attendance? Most of us do. It tells us something about what is going on in the group, but the attendance number alone is not a reliable indicator of group health.

Generally we measure what is important to us. However, sometimes what is important to us is hard or impossible to measure. For example, how do we measure and track the sense of Christ’s presence in a group?

I have been a part of countless groups in my 30+ years as a Christ-follower. The ones I wanted most to attend were the ones in which I sensed Jesus’ presence in a unique way.  Of course, we really can’t measure and record that, but we all respond to it when we sense it. And that is the most fundamental metric of all, to me. If the group is gathered around the presence of Jesus, then I believe it is a healthy group.

Do you record and measure aspects of your cell ministry? If so, we would love to hear what and how you do this.

And how do you assess the degree to which people experience the presence of Christ in your groups?

Steve

2 thoughts on “Metrics

  • First of all I agree with you that a cell is successful if people walk away edified. If they have experienced Christ in the midst. When it comes to what we track. We keep an eye on total cell attendance vs worship attendance. We want to see that percentage growing because that shows how well people are connecting. We also track the number of first time guests to cells. Each month all our groups throw parties and events on the same week so we look for larger numbers on those weeks as outreach weeks.

  • I’m tyring to bring some of the ideas of Neil Cole into my “cellish” church, so these comments are inspirted by his work and supported by his tools.

    Do you record and measure aspects of your cell ministry?

    I track my vitality by the number of active disciple makers mentoring others spiritually that I supervise. I now have 5. None at this time lead cells but they can be defined as potential leader/apprentice pairs.

    And how do you assess the degree to which people experience the presence of Christ in your groups?

    By the number of chapters of scripture read. About 14 people in my little church have read a total of over 1000 chapters of the Bible each month since March. (These are only the people who report what they’ve read each week in writing.) The whole church is reading it’s way through the New Testament 1 chapter per day. John 8:31 Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples…”

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