A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog called, "Church Growth: Are You Playing the Numbers Game?" Turns out some of my numbers were not accurate. Victory actually baptized 4613 people in 2011, not 4183 as reported in my blog. My apologies to the 430 new believers who were left off the original count.
Numbers do matter. To God and to us.
Here's Victory's 2011 Year-End video with some numbers that matter. Enjoy.
A couple of decades ago when I was a fledgling church-planter, I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but I didn't let that stop me. In those days church growth was all the rage. I read church growth books and took a pilgrimage to Korea in an attempt to learn how to grow a church. I think my primary motive was love for the lost, probably mixed with a bit of self-absorbed insecurity and youthful ignorance.
Early on I had this idea that as long as there was one lost person in my city, then my church was not big enough. I still think that way, and I hope I never get over my obsessive compassion for the lost.
While church growth books and seminars seem to now be out of style in most Western circles, I remain convinced that un-churched, de-churched and anti-church people still matter to God, and they should matter to us. I am convinced that we are supposed to do our best to engage our communities with the gospel. If we do a decent job of engaging, our churches will grow. And, that is a good thing, whether our growth is organic, organized or orchestrated.
Anyone concerned with growth will eventually have to deal with numbers. The trick is to figure out which numbers really matter and which numbers don't.
Many church leaders make the mistake of thinking that the two numbers that matter the most are the offering amount and Sunday attendance. Those two numbers often deceive us and never tell the whole story.
Yesterday I received a year end report from my Manila office that contained a lot of numbers about our church (Victory). Some of those numbers were vital, others were simply interesting. Here are 3 of the most important numbers on that report and why they matter to us: 91, 5009, 4183.
91 WORSHIP SERVICES in 16 Metro Manila venues with 58 preaching pastors. Victory is a multi-site multi-service multi-generational church that meets all over Metro Manila. Because leadership development is important to us, we do not use digital sermons, only live preachers. So, for us to grow from 80 services in 14 locations to 91 services in 16 locations, we had to identify, instruct and empower new preachers, kids pastors, worship leaders, head ushers and other leaders. Because we increased the number of venues and worship services, our attendance increased 31.4% from 2010 to 2011. We have averaged about 30% annual growth for 10 consecutive years. But, the most important number is not how many show up, but how many we raise up to places of leadership. That's why discipleship numbers are so important...
5009 DISCIPLESHIP GROUPS (called "Victory Groups") meeting weekly in Metro Manila. That number is probably the most important number we track. It is the foundation of every other number that matters. 5009 represents a 41.8% increase in 12 months. That's a good number and that's good news! We also saw a 29.2% increase (from 1,827 to 2,360) in Training for Victory participation, which is a foundational part of our discipleship training track.
4183 BAPTISMS in 2011. Another important number. Most of our baptisms are conducted at Victory Weekend which had a 71.3% 2010 to 2011 increase from 3149 to 5393 participants.
Are you playing the numbers game? I hope you are, as long as you are tracking the right numbers.
Depending on what kind of church you want to be, some numbers will be more important than others. For us, numbers reflecting evangelism, discipleship and leadership development are the most important numbers we track. The unavoidable and eventual result of evangelism, discipleship and leadership numbers increasing will be more people showing up at our worship services and more money in the offerings.
SUMMARY: Stop obsessing over nickles and noses and start making disciples.
Church leaders could learn a lot from Home Depot. Every year top HD executives leave their comfortable corporate offices, put on the orange apron and walk the isles helping customers find BBQ grills, toilet seats and paint brushes. By personally experiencing their policies in the trenches (isles, warehouses, cash registers) the HD suits see which policies are good and which are bad. Often what seems like a really smart idea from the corner office or the board room, turns out to be really dumb in the real world.
Two Sunday's ago I borrowed a play from the HD exec playbook: I visited our newest congregation, Victory-Makati. I did not preach. I did not lead the service. I did not get near the mic. I simply went to church, not as a pastor, but as a civilian/member/visitor.
Deborah and I sat toward the back and worshipped God and took notes (& tweeted) while LA Mumar preached. I’ve known LA since he was in our kid’s church. I've enjoyed watching him grow up and I enjoyed watching him lead and preach in his new congregation.
I learned a lot from the back row. Not just from LA’s sermon, but from observing the stage, the ushers, the lighting, the sound, the screen… Things sure look different from the back.
Every pastor and church planter should try the view from the back from time to time. It’s like going to an entirely different church than the front row church we are used to.
I'm preaching at Victory-FtBonifacio tomorrow at 9 & 11. We are in week 2 of a 4 week series on parables called "Kingdom Stories" .
TEXT: Matthew 13:44-46
TITLE: "The Treasure"
NOTES:
1- verse 44 "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field..." - Sometimes real treasures are hidden, not obvious, difficult to find. May God open our eyes to see real kingdom treasures, rather than the trash the world tries to sell us.
2- verse 44 "in his JOY sold all he had and bought that field..." - Some treasures are more valuable than everything else we own, and it is joy, not sorrow, to sell all and purchase the treasure.
3- verse 44 "...and bought that field." - Sometimes we have to buy the whole field in order to get the treasure. I never liked Cracker Jacks, but I loved those cheap plastic treasures in the bottom of the box. We can't pick and choose, we buy the whole enchilada, or we don't get the treasure. Salvation comes with a cross.
4- verse 45 "a merchant looking for fine pearls..." - Dude in the field seemed to stumble on a treasure, but this guy is LOOKING. Are you stumbling or looking? Probably better to look, even if you are not good looking (couldn't resist that "Lutherism").
5- verse 46 "sold everything he had and bought it" - There it is again. Selling all and buying something of greater value.
THE POINT: Who is really looking? Who is really seeking? Not me. Not you. At least not according to Romans 3:11 which clearly states that "no one seeks God"
Who sold all and bought a hidden treasure? Who was looking for a valuable pearl to purchase?
Acts 20:28 says Jesus "bought" the church with his own blood
1 Cor 6:20 and 7:23 both say essentially the same thing, that "we were bought with a price"
THE END:
I don't think I'm the dude in the field or the merchant seeking pearls. And I don't think the treasure and the pearl are the kingdom of heaven that we are to sell all and purchase for ourselves.
Rather, I think I'm the treasure and the fine pearl - at least in God's view. And He sacrificed all so he could purchase me and you from the power and penalty of sin and adopt us as his sons and daughters. There.
More tomorrow at Victory-Fort...
FYI: Variations of this message in English, Tagalog and Taglish will be preached at all 73 worship services offered this weekend at 13 Victory locations in Metro Manila. Take your pick and bring a friend.
A recent Ministry Today magazine report said that many Megachurches are “getting bigger without getting bigger.”
How does a church get bigger without getting bigger?
The average megachurch in Amr has over 4000 people attending weekend worship services and the average auditorium seats only 1800.
They grow larger without building larger facilities by going multi-site. In the last 5 years one third of America’s megachurches have adopted the multi-site strategy to accommodate the growth. Rather than building larger buildings, they are simply adding new venues.
We (Victory-Manila) went multi-site in 1986 and never looked back.
We now have 64 weekend worship services in 16 venues all over Metro Manila. We preach the same sermon in all 64 services in 16 different locations. No digital preachers. Only live preachers. (Some seem a bit dead, but we are praying for revival.) Requires lots of preparation. And lots of teamwork.
Too bad all the multi-site books, blogs and seminars weren’t available in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. Could have saved us lots of work.
We followed the “make it up as you go” multi-site strategy. Learned everything the hard way – by making mistake after mistake until we figured out what worked. By the time we figured out what worked, we outgrew it and had to change everything again.
That’s how we grew big without building a big building. We grew big leaders instead. Leaders with the capacity to lead strong congregations all over the city.
***new "accidental missionary" blog: Tues Top 10 List - Movies that Never Get Old
Got some questions and comments about my last blog that I want to comment on, so here’s another follow up...
Q: With so many venues and so many services, why does your church only use live preachers rather than video?
A: While I have no problem with multi-site churches that do vid feeds or DVD sermons, I just can’t do multi-site church that way.
Q: Why not?
A: Three reasons:
One - there aren’t many people who would show up to hear me preach on vid.
Two - I'm just not the TV ministry type.
Three - because of my calling to equip and empower next generation leaders, and for every vid site I could set up, one leader is benched.
I know everyone is not called to do church the way I do, so please don’t copy us. Figure out how God wants you to do church and do it, even if no one else does it that way.
When commenting on the current multi-site rage that finally hit America, my friend Jim Laffoon said: “we will all either reproduce ourselves digitally, or in real people. And it’s a lot harder to reproduce ourselves in real people than on video.”
I think Jim’s right - making disciples and training leaders is harder than buying and setting up high-tech vid equipment.
Here's why: People have opinions and feelings; video equipment is not easily offended. Plus, I’ve never been betrayed or disrespected by a video or a DVD.
But I know I’m called to equip and empower next generation leaders, even if they sometimes have rotten attitudes, and even if some of them do and say things that make my job harder.
What about you - reproduce through a video or a disciple? Why?
*** Latest accidental missionary post: "38 Days in Jail and Counting"
I recently realized that at some point in my life - and I'm not exactly sure when - but a major shift happened in the way I approach ministry, leadership and maybe life in general.
I used to be obsessed with trying to learn to be a good leader.
Since I am not a "natural" leader, I knew I had to somehow obtain those elusive leadership skills. So, I read leadership books. I took seminary classes. I studies church, political and business leaders. I sought mentors. All of this helped, I think. But it seems like I still had to learn most of my lasting leadership lessons the hard way - by taking a risk, falling flat on my face, getting up and trying again.
As time went on, leadership books and seminary classes gradually started to bore me. I was no longer pumped about being a better leader. I am not sure whether that is good or bad, but that is the truth.
I got bored with Kouzes & Posner, Noel Tichy, Jim Collins, Robert Clinton, Aubry Malphurs, Patrick Lencioni, Hanz Finzel, John Maxwell and all the other leadership gurus and their books. I just couldn't take another paragraph about leadership.
Again, I don't know when or why it happened, but my new obsession became, not how to be a better leader, but how to help those around me become better leaders.
Once I got bored with leadership books and my obsession changed, it didn't take long for me to realize that in order to help others become better leaders, I would sometimes have to get out of their way so they could actually lead - so they could take a risk, so they could fall flat on their faces, so they could start over and try again, and again, and again.
To become better leaders people need the freedom to succeed and fail without our interference or intervention. With all due respect to the leadership books and seminary classes, I think I really learned leadership through trial and error and trying again.
I remember a t-shirt I had back when No Fear was a cool new brand. It said something like this: "Lead, Follow, or Get the #&$%@* Out of the Way!"
I think those No Fear people were on to something with that "get out of the way" line. For several years I have been trying the "stay out of the way" leadership development strategy, in order to help those around me become the best leaders they can be.
That seemed to be what Jesus was hinting at when He told his disciples that it was better for them that He go away. They had a hard time with that plan, but it worked out OK, their countless leadership mistakes notwithstanding.
All that to say, Leadership is...Getting Out of the Way.
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