This is an important question. We’ve addressed it before, but the answers keep changing. The answers of 20 years ago will not be the answers of the next 20 years. The answers this year may not be the answers of next year.

Old answers address old concerns. Here are some old answers.

A successful church has

• a membership of at least 150 adults.
• supports a budget of $150,000 with offerings.
• has a settled, full-time pastor that intends to stay for more than seven years.
• can boast of no conflict.
• contributes 10% or at least $15,000 to the regional body each year.
• supports at least three part-time auxiliary staff (sexton, secretary, and organist).
• has a weekly worship service that one-third of the members attend regularly. That translates to a weekly attendance of at least 50.
• has a Sunday School for children 3-11 and an adult forum.
• has a five-day Vacation Bible School.
• accepts 20 new members a year.

These old measures allow for a status quo existence. 

A traditional church can be criticized if their members do not live within five miles. It’s a sign that the church membership has left the neighborhood and can signal the regional office that the church is ripe for takeover. They equate “scattered” with “diminished.”

Geography is not that important anymore. Even our bishop travels about 20 miles to the church she chose to join!

At times the church sets goals for us. One such goal is diversity. Despite the emphasis on inclusion, the church has been largely unable to achieve diversity in the congregational setting. The answer has been to set up separate but equal worship venues. Two or three populations worship at separate times in the same building or are encouraged to serve others like them in their separate location. These multiple communities can worship in the same building for years and know nothing of the “others.” This is playing at diversity. It helps provide some statistics so that it looks like goals are being achieved while congregations remain comfortably homogenous. Homogenous congregations face fewer faith challenges and are more likely to contribute more.

Settled pastors with settled congregations are the goals. So the value of these statistics is rarely challenged. 

Why is this the goal?  Without this financial foundation of the pooled resources of “settled” churches, the hierarchy will fail.

This archaic way of defining and promoting diversity eases the comfort of pastors as much as the comfort of parishioners  The pastor of the homogenous congregation feels less challenged when a pastor with different skills serves the diverse congregation. There is peace in the diverse, but divided, kingdom.

This is all preserving the past while feigning innovation.

Here are some statistics that churches should be measuring if they want to survive in the Information Age.

Community Involvement: How many community events did your congregation participate in as a congregation this year?  How many times did you write about this on your blog and link it to local press sites?

Events: How many events in addition to worship did your congregation host? These can be charity events, artistic offerings, workshops, online events. In a diverse world multiple entry points to church life are needed.

Email List: How many people in the community can you reach by email should you want to rally support for a cause? How many on your list are members? How many are nonmembers?

Many churches used to remove nonmembers from mailing lists to save print and postage. This reinforced the thinking that evangelism is communicating only with people you know.

Since email costs practically nothing, this thinking (which was frugal but unwise) needs to change. Grow that email list!

Website and Blog: Do you have a web site with a blog attached? How many times a week do you post? How many people in your church are involved in the web site? How do you promote your posts to build your online witness? Are your subscriptions growing? Are you getting online feedback?

Collect Statistics: In the old days, an usher stood at the back or the church and clicked a counter as people walked through the door. That worship attendance statistic was all important.

That statistic is fairly useless today. There are so many other ways to measure involvement and provide ways to contribute.

How has your website grown this year? It should grow at least 15% every year. (2×2 doubled its readership in its second year and is on track to quadruple it second year statistics this third year.) Web sites with blogs are easy to measure. You can measure reach, numbers of readers and time spent on the site. This information will help you plan your ministry offline. 

How are you enriching your members’ lives? How are you providing a faith-building environment that involves life-long learning? How are members able to express their faith?

These are some of the measures of the emerging church. They used to be difficult to measure. Not anymore!

The new successful church may look more like this:

• has a local membership of 20.
• has an email  list of 6000.
• has a budget of $12,000.
• uses the legacy of property to fund ministry (if the regional body hasn’t seized it for themselves).
• meets in homes or rented or borrowed space.
• has no single pastor but many contributing clergy.
• addresses conflict and causes regularly.
• worships locally, acts globally.
• contributes nothing to regional body because the regional body doesn’t recognize them.
• provides diverse educational opportunities daily online.
• is open 24/7.
• supports mission efforts outside the denomination because they’ve learned about the opportunity and need online.
• has virtual members and supporters worldwide.

We know this can be done. Redeemer has already proved it.