Run to the BrokennessSample

Day 2: Change the Metrics:

If Day 1 was about rethinking success in ministry, today is about expanding the scorecard—because what you measure shapes what you value. And for too long, the Church has been measuring the wrong things.

Most pastors can recite the “big three” metrics by heart: attendance, offerings, and salvations. And while none of these are bad, they are incomplete. Jesus never commanded His followers to grow a crowd—He called them to serve a city.

In Matthew 25:35–36, Jesus describes the final judgment, and the criteria He uses might surprise us:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” (NIV)

That’s what heaven celebrates. Not the size of your platform—but the strength of your compassion. Not the number of your services—but the depth of your service.

What if your church tracked how many people were fed last month? Or how many were clothed, housed, or employed through your ministries? What if your annual report included not just Sunday stats but stories of hope—like the man who received his first paycheck through your thrift store, or the couple who found Christ after attending a preschool performance?

When COVID disrupted the Church, it exposed how fragile our old metrics were. But it also gave us a holy opportunity to pivot—to become more than event spaces, and step into our role as agents of healing, provision, and transformation.

That’s exactly what the early Church did. Acts 2:44, 47 (NIV) says,

“All the believers were together and had everything in common.… And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Their love and generosity weren’t strategic—they were Spirit-filled. They didn’t serve in order to grow; they grew because they served.

God still honors that kind of obedience today. Isaiah 58:10 promises,

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” (NIV)

That’s what we’re after. Not numbers that make us look successful, but obedience that makes us light in a dark world.

So let’s change the question.

Instead of “How many came to church this week?” ask:

• How many were fed?
• How many found community?
• How many found meaningful work?
• How many caught a glimpse of Jesus—not in a sermon, but in a sack of groceries, a free backpack, or a team member who showed up with grace?

It’s time to stop measuring success only by what happens inside the sanctuary. Start measuring how many lives are touched outside of it. That’s not moving the goalposts—it’s restoring them to where Jesus placed them all along.