The Church Metric I Made Up: Church Efficiency

I made up a church metric several years ago. It's very simple. It is church giving divided by average attendance. 

I came up with it during a brag session by a megachurch pastor. I took their giving and attendance and realized immediately that they receive and spend twice as much per person as our church plant did. 

As an example. I took the numbers from a leading Southern Baptist church with publicly available data. Their church efficiency number is $3541. That is they receive and spend $3541 for every person in their average attendance. Manchester Baptist, where I pastor, is very average both in giving and attendance. Our church efficiency number is $1934.

The metric is mostly useful for church planting discussions. I care about two things: faithful churches and having a church in every community so that every person can hear. I grew up in large churches. I have pastored smaller churches. Faithful churches can come in all kinds of sizes. We should, however, be concerned if the model of ministry requires more money. If one model of church or church plant can faithfully reach people for half the cost, then we should at least consider it so that we can plant and reach twice as many people. We should also not hold up the megachurch model as the only worthwhile model if it requires more money to make it function.

Paul O'Brien recently said, "Mega churches have a type of efficiency that results from consolidated resources." He was arguing against the model, but he assumed the standard line about church size. The church efficiency numbers suggest that mega churches aren't actually efficient, though.

What about affluence, culture, and regional differences? I wonder about this too. I imagine that churches in expensive cities like New York City, San Francisco, and London would require and spend more money because of living expenses for staff. Cost of living isn't that different outside of large cities, though. I pastored in an expensive suburban county when I came up with this idea. Where I pastored was considerably more expensive than where the megachurch was, but they received and spent twice what we did per person. I haven't done exhaustive numbers on it, but I haven't seen that socio-economics are the driving factor.

This should at least be in the discussion for church planting and North American missions. Church planters should know that the model they choose and operate under will require different amounts of money.


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About Me

I'm a husband and father. Pastor of Manchester Baptist Church in Manchester, IL. I graduated from Bryan College and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I grew up in Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia. I write about my personal and professional interests here on my website. I'm a former personal trainer and have stayed interested in fitness. You'll see a mix of things I'm interested in. Topics might include fitness, gardening, coffee, ice cream, church leadership, theology, tech, reviews, etc. This website is my social media. I deleted all of my accounts except for LinkedIn. That is why you won't find me in any of those places. * This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.
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