Customer Reviews

Effectiveness by the Numbers: Counting What Counts in the Church

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bill Hoyt quotes the cynic who said, "Churches are very willing to change. They will make any change necessary to keep things the same!" Hoyt muses that churches are reluctant to measure effectiveness because the cold hard facts might require them to change. Well...it's about time. Preach it!

This book packs a punch. You can't manage what you can't measure and finally, here's a clear and thoughtful voice for local church metrics. There's nothing like it on the market and when an author uses an illustration from The Blues Brothers movie, you know it will be a fun read.

In the "Results Bucket," the first chapter in my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit, I recommend Hoyt's book. I'd also encourage you to read Don Cousin's latest book about measuring success, Experiencing LeaderShift: Letting Go of Leadership Heresies.

I have found in life one thing to be true about effective leaders. They Effectiveness by the Numbers: Counting What Counts in the Churchare willing to say what needs to be said regardless of the consequences. They are willing to risk it all for the kingdom. Hoyt has entered the "no spin zone" for churches and pastors when it comes to measuring what needs to be measured. With pinpoint accuracy Hoyt takes us from the Faithfulness vs. Fruitfulness debate to a CD Rom in the back of the book for forms on how we can accurately measure our effectiveness as leaders in ministry. No matter where you are on this subject you need to read this book and let it simmer. You will be better off for reading it.

This is the best book available for any local church leader who wants to engender a culture of accountability in his or her ministry. Most local church leaders will be unwilling to make the effort, but those who do could not find a better place to start than Hoyt's book. The book is useful mainly for evangelical churches who want to grow. Hoyt's advice is passionate and practical.

Main Idea of the Text:

Most congregations are inefficient in keeping track of certain numbers in a church. These numbers tell a story if the members are willing to listen to the tale. A church should be count that which matters so that it can be better at accomplishing the work of the Lord.

The Three Top Ideas of Greatest Benefit:

1. Counting is a sign of reality. The book states that "since it is easier to stop counting, than to make changes, they simply stop counting." This is one of the greatest problems in the church. The desire to pretend everything is great in declining congregation. Instead of facing reality, it is easier to ignore the decline and death of a congregation. In counting, you are keeping a congregation accountable.

2. Attendance does matter. Often in the church, people will discount attendance because of the perception that it is not important. This is usually an attitude of a declining congregation. But attendance does tell a story. This is why it must be tracked and monitored. The attendance details reflect if the congregation is winning the war in spreading the gospel as well as reaching into the community.

3. The idea of tracking the guests to a congregation is so important. Often this never happens. But if a guest comes, there should be a tracking on whether or not this person stays and continues worshipping and serving with the church. By tracking this, if the process of assimilation is not working, there can be a realistic picture of what needs to change and what is working well. Probably most congregations have no clue on how many people come and go as guests.

The Three Ideas of Major disagreement:

1. The book claims that churches recruit on organizational need. This is really not the case. Often churches have little or any selection for future leaders. It is almost a warm body is better than no body. Sometimes churches put people in roles that they are not skilled enough to perform. But there is a good feeling because someone is on the books to be in charge of a certain ministry. Though, nothing is happening in the work.

2. At first, it seemed that I disagreed with the book's focus on some much counting. It seemed to be less spiritual. But as I read, the book was excellent in telling the reader what to count and why it is important. There might need to be some changes in the approach for average church members that have a dislike towards numbers, but the book does build a strong case for counting.

The Recommendation of the Book:

I would recommend this book because of the excellent job of defining what needs to be counted and why these results are important. It breaks down the church growth process into helpful measurements to ascertain the effectiveness of a congregation.

as the performance managers say, "you get what you measure." and this book, by focusing on "what we measure," really forces us to come to grips with what is REALLY important to us and to our church. definitely worth the time to read, and then to re-read.

This is the best book on church finance I've ever read, and I've read a number of them. Even though it is not primarily about finances, the concepts and values that it teaches are foundational to running a church well. Straight talking and to the point, it accurately describes the problems most churches have with evaluating their performance and then lays out a set of principles that if followed, will lead to church effectiveness.

The main argument of the book is that churches only really count two things: donations, and attendees, these they don't count very well. Hoyt believes that while those are important things to track, they are not the best metrics for gauging church health. Things like the number of 'conversions' (baptisms, confirmations, etc.), the cost of each (church budget divided by number of conversions) and other novel approaches can be better indicators of how effective your church really is. He is not a 'it's only about the numbers' kind of guy, but he does argue quite convincingly that tracking things effectively is part of being a responsible church.

Other valuable topics covered in the book are the importance of a good assimilation program, gauging if your church is producing the right product (disciples of Christ), how many of your attenders are serving in a meaningful way, and tackling the arguments of those opposed to essential changes if your church is failing at any of the above.

Included with the book is a CD that contains several very useful excel formulas that will help your church get better at counting what matters, counting it well, and interpreting the data in a way that help effectiveness.

This is a quick read, but its so packed with useful information that it should be one the shelf of every pastor that takes growth, effectiveness, and running an organization well seriously. It changed the the church that I work for views a number of things, and has greatly assisted us in making some tough decisions to get us where we are called to go. If you're looking for a good resource to get your church to the next level, or to fix longstanding problems, this is a great choice. Highly recommended.

Hoyt steps into the fracas between those who insist on measuring effectiveness and those who insist spirituality and a person's heart are not subject to metrics. The book aims to help church leaders increase their ministry effectiveness by measuring the right things in the right ways. I find myself identifying with Billy Martin who claimed in the commercial that he felt very strongly both ways.