THE CHURCH HEALTH ASSESSMENT

“How do you assess the health of a church if it’s not about the numbers?”

This is my most-asked question, by a large margin.

In some ways this question has always seemed strange to me. Have we really become so numbers-focused that we can’t tell if a church is healthy without quantifying it on a spreadsheet?

On the other hand, it makes some sense. After all, numbers are clear and definable, but a lack of numbers . . . isn’t.

Beyond the Numbers

In many, maybe most congregations, numbers are not the best way to determine health. And, because of something known as the Law of Large Numbers (read more about it here) this is especially true in smaller churches.

In many circumstances numbers can give us a false reading, causing us to believe that a church is healthy when it’s not. And vice versa.

So how do we counterbalance this? Is there a way to assess a congregation’s health in addition to, or maybe even in place of numbers?

I believe there is. So, I’ve taken a list of four clearly defined categories of church health, and I’ve created a simple self-assessment tool to help you consider how your congregation is doing in each area. It’s not definitive, but it can be a great start to thinking differently.