By Warren Bird, Ph.D.
Which is more important to God’s
mission for your church: sharing the good news about Jesus, or managing church
finances well? Hopefully doing the second option leads to doing more of
the first-- but at your church board meetings, which goal gets more time and attention?
We’ve all heard phrases like “what you
measure improves,” and “expect more of what you inspect,” and even “what you
celebrate, you’ll get more of.” So, in our recent survey of church boards, we
asked about three goal-setting topics. This is what we learned:
In other words, slightly more attention
is fixed on setting goals for finances than on setting goals for growth and
outreach.
Who is the exception? What kinds of churches
(or under what circumstances) do we see greater focus placed on goals for growth
and evangelism? I looked at 16 different variables and, sadly, none were
the exception where setting/reviewing goals for “growth issues” surpassed
setting/reviewing goals for “financial health/sustainability.”
(1) Church size didn’t matter, nor did
(2) board size. Nor did the (3) senior
pastor’s age, (4) length of time the senior pastor has served at that church,
or (5) whether the pastor is the founding pastor. Nor did the (6) age of the
church or (7) whether it’s multisite. Nor did the (8) perspective of the survey
taker (i.e., senior pastors, board chairs, and board members all had the same
perceptions). Nor the (9) size of the board, (10) how the board is selected, or
(11) whether the board goes on an annual planning retreat, nor even if the
board does an (12) annual performance review of itself or (13) of the senior
pastor. Nor whether the board (14) considers itself highly effective or (15) feels
it’s very clear on its roles and responsibilities.
My biggest surprise is that (16) growing
churches didn’t register differently in how often they reviewed or set goals
for growth. Whew!
There are a lot of “maybes” that could
explain why the frequency of financial goal setting exceeds that of growth
issues. For example; maybe financial issues change more frequently, and thus
merit closer attention, whereas outreach is steadier and more consistent. Maybe
you can think of other “maybes.”
What about YOUR church? Let us know your thoughts at research@ecfa.org.
