By Pastor Doug
I’m a big Chicago Cubs fan. So you can imagine how I felt when they won the World Series in 2016—on top of the world. But in the nine years since that historic win, I’ve noticed something remarkable happening in the world of baseball: analytics have taken over.
It all started (at least in the public eye) with the movie Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt. The story follows a general manager who ditched traditional scouting instincts in favor of hiring a stats-savvy analyst to build a winning team. Instead of relying on what a player looked like, they looked at stats like On-base Percentage (OBP), Slugging Percentage (SLG), Weighted On-base Average (wOBA), and Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+). Some baseball purists hated it. Others embraced it. But there’s no denying: analytics changed the game.
And now, analytics are changing the Church too.
Moving Beyond Attendance and Budgets
For years, churches have measured success with the “three Bs”: butts, bucks, and buildings—attendance, giving, and facilities. But just like baseball moved beyond batting average, the Church is beginning to shift from output goals to input goals—the things that help people actually grow in their faith.
In a recent post, I shared a study from Lifeway Research about discipleship. They identified 8 attributes of a growing disciple of Christ:
Bible Engagement
Obeying God and Denying Self
Serving God and Others
Sharing Christ
Exercising Faith
Seeking God
Building Relationships
Unashamed (Transparency)
These aren’t just ideals—they’re measurable outcomes of spiritual growth. As I researched I also found that certain spiritual disciplines consistently help people grow in all eight of these areas. Four disciplines stood out above the rest:
Attending weekly worship services
Daily Scripture reading
Being part of a small community
Actively serving others
Putting Discipleship Analytics into Practice
In the middle of the pandemic in 2020, our church took the discipleship assessment from Lifeway. The results helped us refocus on these four key disciplines. So, our elders began to intentionally guide our congregation in these directions. Here’s how we translated those disciplines into actionable practices:
Sunday Morning Worship
We encouraged regular, in-person attendance—making it a spiritual priority, not just a weekly habit.
Daily Devotion: The 5-5-5 Plan
We introduced a simple, approachable rhythm: 5 minutes of Bible reading, 5 minutes of prayer, 5 days a week. This came from the “On Mission” training by the Missionary Church denomination. It’s an easy on-ramp for developing consistency in time with God.
LifeGroups: The Next Step in Community
LifeGroups were already part of our church, but we challenged people to go deeper—not just studying the Bible, but applying it and holding each other accountable. One of the questions we began asking regularly: “How is your 5-5-5?”
Serving with Purpose
We helped people discover how God designed them to serve using spiritual gift assessments, personality profiles, and their own passions and experiences. The expectation grew: everyone has a role in ministry.
A New Way to Measure Church Health
For the first time in 2025, we used these four input goals to evaluate our ministry year—not attendance, not budget, not how many events we pulled off. Here’s what we measured instead:
Sunday Attendance Engagement
87% of our church attended worship on a typical Sunday.
5-5-5 Participation
Among our leadership team and their spouses, 83% were actively doing their 5-5-5. We still need a better way to track this church-wide, but it’s a start.
LifeGroup Involvement
81% of our church were involved in a LifeGroup.
Serving in Ministry
78% of our church was actively serving in some capacity.
Our elders emphasized one key truth: this isn’t about legalism. We’re not tracking numbers for numbers’ sake. These disciplines aren’t boxes to check—they’re pathways to heart transformation. We want people to engage in worship, devotions, community, and service with the right attitude.
Why This Matters
This shift was revolutionary for our leadership. For the first time, we had meaningful data that showed real growth in the hearts and lives of our people. We saw people taking their next step in following Jesus. We saw genuine life change.
And yes—the analytics backed it up.
We’re going to keep encouraging these four discipleship practices, not because we want higher stats, but because we believe the fruit will be more Christlike people. As the numbers grow, so does spiritual maturity. And that’s something worth measuring.
