If you’ve had a mentor in your life, you understand what a profound blessing that relationship can be. My first mentors were my parents. I can still feel their love and encouragement even though they both sleep in Jesus, awaiting the Second Coming. Their voices and words regularly resound in my mind.
Recently, while renovating the home we bought when we accepted the call to serve the Lake Union, I had my skill saw ready to cut a board when my dad’s words spoke to me as if he were standing beside me: “If you measure twice, you only have to cut once.” I pulled out my tape measure and straight edge and measured the board twice, carefully considering the length I needed. “Measure twice, cut once” — a good rule of thumb for any carpenter.
What We Measure Matters
In business, common measurements include Profit and Loss, Working Capital, and EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization). In the church, we often measure success by donated dollars and membership growth. In Secretariat, we focus on membership, baptisms and church attendance.
How do you measure success in your personal or professional life?
Mathematician Richard Hamming said, “You get what you measure.”
In Mark 4:24, Jesus — who wants to mentor each of us — said, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”
This raises an obvious question: Are we measuring the right things?
The Value of Quantitative Data
Quantitative measures are primarily numerical. They fit on spreadsheets and graphs, giving us a way to chart progress at a glance. These measurements are valuable. If you’re an investor, you can quickly see which instrument offers the highest rate of return or how well your stock portfolio is performing. If you’re a leader in your local church and haven’t had a baptism in five years while attendance numbers decline, those quantitative measures are important indicators that something is amiss. Conversely, if you’re averaging 20 baptisms per year and your attendance has doubled in five years, that indicates God is blessing your efforts.
As a church, we will continue measuring attendance, baptisms and membership statistics for two reasons:
- As an indicator of how successful we are relative to our mission — and as a warning when we face challenges we might be tempted to deny
- As a tool God values — the fourth book of the Bible is Numbers, named because God directed Moses to take a census of the Children of Israel. Numbers 1:1-2 says, “The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, saying, ‘Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names …’”
10-Year Trends (2015–2025)
Looking at the past decade, we observe a trend of steady growth in the Lake Union. We have experienced 19,115 baptisms and professions of faith as God’s Spirit has moved on hearts and we have faithfully shared truth. During this period, our membership has increased from 86,652 at the end of 2015 to 91,926 members at the end of 2025.
However, our net gain during these 10 years has only been 5,274 members. Several factors contribute to this lower net gain:
- 7,187 members have died
- 2,555 members have been removed due to apostasy
- 2,498 members have been removed and marked missing
- 8,673 members transferred out of our union, while 8,013 transferred in—resulting in a net loss of 660 members due to transfers
These combined factors prompt each of us to faithfully continue spreading the Three Angels’ Messages (Revelation 14:6–12) to those unaware of or uncommitted to the Eternal Gospel and present truth.
Notably, some years have seen over 1% net gain in church growth, but the annual average percentage gain over the past 10 years is 0.75%.
The Critical Importance of Qualitative Data
As a church, we must acknowledge that if we only look at quantitative measurements, we will miss perhaps the most important information — the truth about us that can only be gleaned qualitatively.
Qualitative data is observational. A loving, redemptive look at our own spiritual journeys, the journeys of members who attend our churches in the Lake Union, and how we are perceived by our communities can tell us so much more. Qualitative data reveals the kind of churches and people we are becoming.
We must continually ask ourselves:
- Are we exemplifying the Fruit of the Spirit — “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23)?
- Are we becoming more like Jesus or less like Jesus (Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 1 John 3:2)?
- Are we a blessing to those around us or a burden to them (Acts 3:25–26)?
- What kind of believers is our church producing — those who are nominal in faith or deeply devoted disciples?
A Holistic Vision
Though the office of Secretariat is responsible for monitoring and reporting quantitative measurements, if we do that without a heart for people and an understanding that each number represents a person for whom Jesus died, we will miss out on the most important data.
May God grant us His vision and focus that we might measure and evaluate holistically and honestly. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.”
Each statistic represents a soul. Each measurement tells a story. Let us measure wisely.
Ted Huskins is executive secretary for the Lake Union Conference.
Sherrie Davis – administrative assistant