When I first came to Northgate I was overwhelmed by how much information there was to get my mind around! I came from a church of 150 to a church of 600 so memorizing names alone was a HUGE challenge! Add to that the challenge of knowing systems, policies, schedules, strategies, etc. and it became a bit overwhelming!
I spent over a year asking other pastors, reading books, and wrestling with this question, “Out of all the things that I could know at Northgate, what are the pieces of information that I MUST know?”
At this point in my journey I believe it is critical to know these five things about the church…
- Attendance
- Giving
- Number of people who gave their life to Christ
- Number of people who are in some form of a group
- Number of people who are engaged in service
We keep track of this information on what we call “The Dashboard.”
Follow me on this one… when you’re driving on a journey to some destination it’s nice to be able to look down at the dashboard of your vehicle and in one look see all of the critical information – how fast you’re going; how many miles you’ve traveled; how much gas you have left; etc.
The dashboard enables the leader(s) to see all of the “Must-Know” information in one glance!
Every week, at our Management Team meeting, we are handed “The Dashboard” which allows us to see the five things listed above with some comparisons (last week; last month; last year). This allows us to get some context on how we are doing.
I want to know these five things because it allows me to get a handle on Northgate life in a glance.
If I see “Red Warning Lights” (e.g. number of people in groups declining) I start asking questions! If I see a significant rise in giving, I ask questions! If I see our attendance going up, but the number of people engaged in service staying the same… I ask questions!
One more cool thing that the Dashboard allows for is a place for stories. Numbers are great, but numbers alone are empty. We regularly take time to tell the story behind the numbers! For instance, if the number of people engaged in service is going up, it is cool to hear some of the stories of those serving! It is great to see that new people are coming to Jesus, but it is even better to know their names and hear their stories! The stories add “meat” to the “bones” the numbers provide! (A bit of a cannibalistic metaphor but harmless nonetheless… I assure you!) 
I realize that numbers alone are not everything, but I also know that they are the easiest form of measurement… therefore I watch the numbers and listen to stories!
Comments? Reflections? Observations? New insights?
Filed under: The top five things, church, leadership
I read an article once (don’t remember where) that said that the more information a person uses in the decision making process, the worse the decision. But people who used 2 or 3 key pieces of information were able to make better decisions. They weren’t advocating using no information to make a decision, but focusing on 2-3 important pieces.
I think this also ties into our vision for the church and how we want the church to “be” in the community.