One of the most common questions I get asked as someone who has pastored digitally for over a decade is how to reconcile metrics with physical locations.
I spent years trying to figure out how to report on the amazing fruit of what God was doing digitally, but since it didn’t match the common scoreboards, it landed anecdotally at best.
Then came the magic word after the pandemic as churches attempted to make sense of it all – “engagement” as a means of quantifying digital success. There’s just one problem: Everyone has a different concept of what engagement is.
Ask 10 pastors and you’ll get 12 definitions… three of them from me! I feel so conflicted because I want there to be a good metric, but it seems so elusive to square it with what we already know. And to be fair, engagement in one environment probably should mean something different in another.
What we need as a church are greater ways of measuring the success of our efforts since we already know that attendance and giving are easy metrics and fairly clear, but they don’t tell the whole story, just like views and clicks don’t.
So how did Jesus measure his ministry?
In the first chapters of Luke, Jesus preaches to great crowds and then hints at how they could be greater in Luke 6:47-48:
“As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.”
Jesus shared in two verses an engagement funnel:
- Those who come
- Those who hear
- Those who practice
Jesus was super clear on what end He had in mind, something greater: a church that’s unshakable!
Now that starts with people coming, but that’s not even close to the end He had in mind. There were plenty of people who were coming to Jesus to get the free bread and miracle show. If Jesus had stopped with those who came, we wouldn’t be talking about this today. Jesus expected greater, just like pastors expect more when attendance jumps from getting free t-shirts, books, and coffee and then wonders, “Did they just come for the freebies and the show?”
Those who come are just the beginning of the story, just like those who watch and those who click because some of those who come actually end up listening.
Digital ministry measures this really well oddly because of all the distractions. If they’re not listening, everything else is just one click away and that’s exactly what happens. In the auditorium, people might be present in body, but we have no idea where their minds are wandering.
Physical tends to measure attendance better, while digital measures attention better. That’s why watch time is more helpful than views when it comes to digital content engagement. Where physical ministry tends to excel at counting who comes, it doesn’t do as well at measuring who hears. Digital measures well who hears because with all the other options available digitally, either they’re listening or they’re gone, so one way to square physical and digital engagement is through time.
For example, if you have 500 people show up for a sermon that lasts an hour, that’s 500 hours of investment in your community. Compare that to 500 hours of watch time and you have the same investment of time into your community. Hopefully something comes out of that investment because Jesus doesn’t stop there either. He wanted something greater as Jesus’ little brother James said so well in James 1:25: “But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
Don’t forget Jesus’ funnel: Those who come, those who hear, those who practice.
Obedience to what was heard, doing what we know is right, and persevering as we practice His ways will make for a solid life. Interestingly, the ratio of come/hear/practice is about the same regardless of whether it’s physical or digital content. After the end of a sermon, how many actually respond and a week later are practicing what they heard preached? In my experience it feels about the same as those who do so after watching a video. It’s about a thousand to one ratio.
I don’t say this to discourage anyone, but to be realistic about what our efforts produce and how we measure success.
What if we intentionally focused our sermons, our videos, and our social media posts toward micro-steps of obedience like praying with someone, sharing this post on your feed, telling us when you forgive that person who hurt you, or just signing-up for the group to help you get back on track.
I would love to see micro-obedience steps in our spreadsheets and on our dashboards alongside attendance and watch time so we can begin to evaluate all our environments around not just how many people are coming, but also how we’re helping people hear the voice of Jesus and then do something about it. Interestingly, while attendance, clicks, and views don’t measure the same things, obedience, just like time, can be a common metric across all environments.
Let’s not be afraid of those downstream numbers not having many digits because many times the greater good God wants is accomplished through the few.
Jesus didn’t give his heart to the crowds (John 2:24) but to His disciples and was able to say at the end of His ministry, even before going to the cross and rising from the dead (John 17:3-4), that He had accomplished His mission. He knew the disciples, though few in comparison to the crowds, would be greater as they came to Jesus, heard His great commission, and put it into practice.
I’m glad they did.
I’m so glad they went, they made more disciples all over the world, they baptized those new disciples into the family, and they taught others to obey His voice, just like Jesus did.
I can’t think of anything greater than that.
And I’m grateful to be counted by Jesus as part of it.
