How Churches Can Measure What Really Matters
The Myth You Didn’t Know You Believed
Many of us remember the popular TV show MythBusters. Its whole premise was simple:
Take commonly held beliefs and ask one question: Is it true or is it a myth? I (Robby) came to the realization after watching most episodes that things I had believed for most of my life were incorrect.
The same question is worth asking about our ministries: Is what I believe true or a myth? What hinders many churches isn’t primarily a lack of strategy. It’s that the leader has accepted a myth as truth.
The scary thing about a myth is that it is a faulty belief that drives our behavior, and most of the time, we don’t even realize it. That’s because myths often sound right. They make sense and are reinforced by experience. They are validated by what we see others doing. Over time, they become assumptions we no longer question. And that is what makes them so dangerous.
Myths do not merely shape what we think, they shape how we lead. They influence what we prioritize, what we measure, what we celebrate.
Eventually, when we believe a myth to be truth, we can sense that something isn’t quite right. This is because myths separate good intentions from good impact. No pastor delights in their church attendance going up but their people remaining immature in their faith. We don’t want to create a culture of burnout or miss out on what is best for our ministry. But by believing a myth, we unintentionally do things that hold us back from the results we desire to see.
Over the last 10 years, we have served nearly 4,000 churches through Long Hollow Church, where I (Robby) serve as pastor, and Replicate Ministries, an organization dedicated to empowering churches to activate their unique disciple-making movements. Through that work, we have identified five myths that ministry leaders quietly believe and rarely question:
- Engagement Myth. activity = transformation
- Expertise Myth. excellent execution = excellent ministry
- Empowerment Myth. filling spots = empowering people
- Equipping Myth. teaching = training
- Execution Myth. church impact = ministry ownership
These myths show up in small churches and megachurches alike. And in almost every case, the leader doesn’t know the myth is even there until they see the damage it has done.
The Engagement Myth is the most prevalent one we see churches struggle with. It influences all the other myths because it sets the church’s scoreboard. The Engagement Myth rests on the faulty assumption that program activity equals personal transformation.
The belief is that if people are attending, connecting and serving, they must be growing spiritually. And to be fair, this assumption is understandable. Much like hits and runs in baseball, a correlation exists between activity and transformation. So, churches should continue to measure weekly attendance, small group participation, and volunteer numbers? Absolutely. But we must recognize that these metrics measure participation, not discipleship. Activity metrics aren’t wrong, just incomplete.
Over time, when attendance becomes the primary measure of success, it begins to shape church culture. Leaders tend to make decisions based on what draws a crowd. Staff begins to focus on managing environments rather than developing people. Congregants start to equate showing up with spiritual growth.
Program activity becomes how everyone “keeps score.” While this approach creates busier church members, it doesn’t guarantee the development of disciples. An activity-only scoreboard, at best, provides an uninspiring vision and, at worst, promotes a work-based theology that leads to burnout.
