What Are You Counting?
Recently I was at a pastor’s conference that fell shortly after annual parochial reports were due. If you don’t know what “parochial reports” are, take a moment to give thanks. In short, they’re the tally sheets by which my denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, keeps tabs of church membership, pastoral duties performed (baptisms, funerals, marriages), and monies given.
It’s a necessary exercise, I suppose, as any organization needs to have a means by which to track its development, but for many pastors it’s a chore with little relevance to their day-to-day ministry, and for an increasing number it’s just plan depressing. As one pastor shared with me at that conference: “I feel like my congregation is growing by leaps and bounds in the number of people we serve, but none of that ministry falls into categories that are recognized.” He was talking about the prison ministry his church undertakes, and the free after-school program it runs for at-risk kids, and the dinner for the homeless they sponsor each week, or the people they’ve engaged in conversation in their monthly theology-and-beer meetings at the local bar. All worthy ministries, but none of them quantifiable on the official sheet of paper.
His particular congregation is a mission-start – a new ministry in an area that wasn’t being served before – and so it depends on the larger church for a significant amount of financial support. Which is why filling out the annual parochial report had quickly moved for him from tedious to depressing: “Our continued support depends, in part, on how much we’re growing. But how can we show our growth when the things we do aren’t counted.” Or count. Let’s just say it: when the things you do aren’t counted it feels like they don’t count.
“What do you think I should do?” he asked. Fair question, as I was the resident “expert” at that conference, talking about a changing culture and the demand for a changed and changing church as well. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what we should do. Protest. Ask for a different form. Ignore the form and focus on the people. All these things occurred to me and more, but none seemed that helpful. Then a better answer came: “Tell stories,” I finally said. “I know you have to count in the traditional way, but these instruments were designed to measure attendance and income, not changed lives. But you can tell stories about the changed lives.”
Parochial. In some ways, the name says it all. My online dictionary offers two definitions for the word. The first is how my church means it: “of or relating to a church parish.” But the second seems more accurately descriptive: “having a limited or narrow outlook or scope.” What we measure, I think, says a lot about what we value. And I’m not sure we’re yet broad enough in considering what we value enough to measure.
I understand the importance of counting, of measuring, keeping track, and assessing. The question isn’t whether we’re counting, but what. So when you think about your goals – whether it’s growing a church or raising a family or fulfilling a dream or changing the world, what are you counting?
A side note: in 2009, the ECLA started measuring people who are participating in congregations rather than just “members.” It’s a start….
When are we going to start counting differently? As you rightly say, what counts, counts. If we are going to grow in becoming a more kingdom focused church, why does all of our reporting still focus on these same things? I can only imagine how a simple act of reporting something different would transform our churches. What if the most important numbers were something about childhood literacy, graduation rates, poverty rate or other community indicators that really reflect how well we are fulfilling our mission to be the Body of Christ in the world?
So as a church leader I don’t want to focus on these numbers. I know some in my Synod don’t want to focus on these numbers, nor do you. When, where and how does the change begin?
This conversation, I think, and a thousand more like it all over the church may be the only thing to get things going.
Agreed across the board. Having submitted mine a couple of weeks ago, I’m immediately drawn back to those little boxes of limited space to talk about the “special emphases” in my ministry and how I had to revert to Twitter-ese to fit some of the thoughts into the space. The answer to the question of “How can we help all of us focus on the other numbers?” I think is really perfect here: tell the stories. Stories convey relationships, meaning & the intentionality to make our brothers and sisters count, not the numbers they represent on a form. The numbers can deceive: living in an affluent community is fine, but behind those numbers lies the highest rising poverty rate in the country- What is the story we not only tell, but write with God in that setting? Thanks for your thoughts- inspiring as always 🙂
Thanks so much for validating the frustration and acknowledging that something more needs to be addressed. I too am frustrated with the annual report of financial and attendance figures – in the context in which my ministry is conducted we are investing in people outside our walls in so many unmeasureable ways and thereby impacting lives and transforming with the real good news of God’s abundant love. It’s priceless and truly a treasure which moth and rust will not destroy – and both the congregation and community find it mutually grace-filled and Spirit led. I’ll remember to tell the story next year – that’s where true vitality is found.
There is an axiom in business that “what gets measured gets done”. The corollary to this is that sane people do things that maximize the statistics for results by which they are measured. The impact of this is that measurements do count and what you measure is very important. Witness “No Child Left Behind”. School district after school district has begun teaching to the test–ignoring important creative and development experiences for children so that they can “do well on THE TEST” What we measure as a church really does matter, and influences the behavior of congregations. What we, as the ELCA, are measuring does not encourage innovative ministries or outreach in a culture that no longer values weekly worship attendance. Perhaps it is time to re-think our entire measurement process.
Maybe someone could forward this article to the creators of the “Parochial Report”? The only thing I could say to the article and all of the comments is AMEN, AMEN, and AMEN!!
In the Episcopal Diocese of Newark our bishop asked us to start including stories of mission and transformation with our parochial reports. He knows the national offices may not read them, but he is sending them. Thanks for this!