How Churches Can Measure What Really Matters
2. Kingdom Circles: Where Discipleship Happens
Once you have a clear picture of success, you can begin building a strategy to get there. According to Lifeway Research, only 8% of churches are satisfied with the success of their discipleship strategy.
In 2020, COVID-19 provided churches with a nationwide disciple-making test that had only one question: “If you take away a church’s programming, will its people own the mission?” And by and large, most churches flunked that test. People struggled to grow spiritually, to share their faith and to disciple their families.
This realization led us to rethink our discipleship strategy at Long Hollow. Like most churches, we had gotten caught up in wanting people to become more engaged church members. Using activity as our metric for success, we had called the congregation to be more active in our programming, from worship to groups to volunteering.
While increased engagement will happen as people take their next step in a church’s process, it should be seen as a byproduct more than its purpose. The goal should be a person’s development more than their attendance record. The end result isn’t to create an active church member but instead to develop a personal disciple-maker.
By focusing on two key additions, coaching and commissioning, church leaders can move members beyond just attending, connecting and serving. They can equip their people with the skills needed to grow in their faith and help others do the same. Empowering them to go make disciples where they live, work and play gives them ownership.
Our goal then became to help people name and reach something we call their “Kingdom Circle.” Every person in our church is called to bring the kingdom of God into their circle of influence. They are called to make disciples in their neighborhood, at their workplace, at their kids’ sports practice.
When we look at our church strategy, we still measure how active people are in groups and teams, but we focus on seeing how many people are making disciples in their Kingdom Circle. Measuring this helps us redefine success not by how many people we seat but by how many people we send. It causes our staff to view themselves not as people who execute programs to host people, but as coaches who empower them to live out their God-given calling.
This shift has yielded massive results. When we call people to live out the Dream Disciple lifestyle as they make disciples in their Kingdom Circle, ministry explodes because it isn’t limited to what our staff does in the church building; instead, ministry is something that our people do 24/7.
But it does more than just expand our ministry impact; it brings deeper meaning to everyone in the church. The staff feels like they are doing what they got into ministry to do—equip the saints for the works of ministry (Eph. 4:11-13). The people in the pews begin to realize what God created them to do.
For example, we have seen:
* A stay-at-home mom host a playdate at her house for moms who didn’t go to church. As the kids play, the moms discuss a parenting book and connect weekly. The result is the women all started attending church with their families.
* A brand strategist start a prayer group at his workplace and 40 people sign up.
* A quarry worker launch a weekly gathering with his neighbors and coworkers to hang out around his firepit. He has seen most of the men attending begin a relationship with God.
* An entrepreneur begin coaching more than 100 other Christian entrepreneurs on how to leverage their work for kingdom impact while finding a healthy work/life balance.
Developing the Kingdom Circle training has helped us call people to a disciple-making lifestyle that fits each person’s calling and season of life. It also helps us measure and partner with our people for ministry outside the walls of the church. For years, “Live Sent” has been a catchy phrase churches put on T-shirts. Now we have the partnership strategy to walk alongside our people, help them name their Kingdom Circle, and support them as they reach it.
