Over the past four to five years, I’ve had numerous conversations with church leaders who have embraced the challenge of shifting from primarily attractional strategies to a culture that prioritizes disciple making. I like to describe this transition as moving from “come and see” to “go and be.” This article will be based on conversations with these church leaders who are starting to see progress. As you’ll see, it’s not only about a philosophical shift—something many churches are navigating with some success—but also about the equally crucial transformation in what we measure once that shift takes place.
A few years ago, many of these church leaders would have told you their churches were thriving. Their Sunday services were packed, their events drew hundreds, and their social media engagement was solid. If numbers were to tell the story, they were winning. But something didn’t sit quite right with them.
Over time, they started noticing a pattern: It was the same people, week after week, sitting in the same seats, listening to sermons but not necessarily growing as disciples of Jesus. While they had plenty of attendees, they had very few disciple makers—very few who saw the mission of Jesus as their mission, too. These church leaders began to ask themselves, were they making disciples, or were they just gathering a crowd?
“It was the same people, week after week, sitting in the same seats, listening to sermons but not necessarily growing as disciples of Jesus.”
That question led these leaders to begin to reconsider how they measured success in our church. They realized that the attractional model—the framework they had been operating under—valued metrics that didn’t necessarily reflect spiritual transformation and genuine life change—a process often called discipleship. If they were going to be serious about fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), they needed a shift. They realized they needed to embrace and cultivate a disciple making culture and redefine what they considered success.
Attractional Church Metrics: Counting Attendance, Not Transformation
For decades, the majority of churches have operated under an attractional model. If you are honest with yourself, I bet you will see much of what characterizes this paradigm in the church you lead. This approach seeks to draw people in through engaging services, excellent programming, and a high-quality experience. While none of these things are inherently bad, they lead us to embrace metrics that define success in particular ways:
- Weekly Attendance: The number of people in the building (or online) each week.
- Membership Growth: How many people officially join the church.
- Event Participation: The turnout for conferences and other similar church-wide initiatives.
- Financial Giving: The increase or decrease in tithes and offerings.
- Social Media Engagement: Likes, shares, and online reach.
- Facility Expansion: Bigger buildings, better technology, more campuses.
These numbers are easy to track, and they do provide insight into a church’s influence—one kind of influence, anyway. But here’s the problem: they don’t measure discipleship. You can have a church full of attendees who never move beyond passive participation.
“You can have a church full of attendees who never move beyond passive participation.”
Disciple Making Metrics: Measuring Spiritual Reproduction
When we begin studying churches with a strong disciple making culture (the vast majority of those are in the Global South, by the way), we notice a radically different way of measuring effectiveness. Instead of asking, “How many people attended?” we begin asking, “How many people are making disciples?”
By studying these churches, these leaders discovered a new set of key metrics, such as:
- Engagement in Discipleship Relationships: How many people are actively being discipled and discipling others?
- Bible Engagement and Prayer Life: Are people consistently reading Scripture and growing in their prayer life?
- Gospel Conversations: How often are members sharing their faith with others?
- Servant Leadership Growth: How many members step into leadership and ministry roles?
- Multiplication of Small Groups or House Churches: Are new discipleship groups forming as a result of organic spiritual growth?
- Community and Missional Involvement: How engaged are our members in serving the community and living missionally and what percentage of the people we lead see themselves as disciple-makers?
- Life Transformation Stories: Are there testimonies of real-life change, repentance, and deeper faith? Stories matter when we are trying to shift culture!
These metrics aren’t as easy to quantify as attendance or giving, but they are infinitely more valuable. They show whether our people are actually being spiritually renewed and transformed in and through Christ and living out His mission.
“These metrics aren’t as easy to quantify as attendance or giving, but they are infinitely more valuable.”
The Shift: From Consumers to Disciple-Makers
Making the shift from an attractional church to a disciple making church isn’t easy. It challenges deeply ingrained habits—and cultures that have long been established—and forces a reorientation of priorities. But it’s absolutely necessary if we want to build the kind of church Jesus envisioned. Here are a few shifts these churches have been making:
1. From Platform-Centered to People-Centered Ministry
In the attractional model, church is often centered on the pastor and the stage (a friend of mine calls this the “sage on the stage strategy”). People come to listen, not as much to engage. In a disciple making culture, the focus shifts from the pulpit to personal relationships. Instead of expecting people to just show up on Sunday, we can challenge them to invest in others throughout the week. We want them to be intentional and strategic, always having open eyes ready to see the opportunities God creates.
2. From Passive Participation to Active Disciple Making
Instead of just attending services, people in disciple making churches are encouraged to disciple others. This means creating a culture where it’s normal for every believer to mentor someone else—even as they are likely being mentored themselves—in their journey with Christ.
“Instead of just attending services, people in disciple making churches are encouraged to disciple others.”
3. From Event-Based to Relationship-Based Growth
While big events can be helpful, they’re not the end goal. A disciple making church prioritizes ongoing, intentional relationships where people are challenged to grow in their faith.
4. From Attraction to Multiplication / From Gathering to Sending
Instead of focusing on getting as many people as possible into the building, disciple making churches now focus on sending people out. This means training and equipping members to start small groups, disciple others, and even plant new churches.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
The Western church is facing a discipleship crisis. Many churches are filled with spiritually passive believers who know how to consume content but don’t know how to make disciples. This isn’t only a leadership issue—it’s a Kingdom issue. Jesus didn’t say, “Go and build large gatherings and even larger buildings.” He said, “Go and make disciples.”
Imagine what would happen if we stopped measuring success by how many people came to us, and instead by how many people were being sent out. What if instead of celebrating the size of our church, we celebrated the size of our discipleship impact?
“Many churches are filled with spiritually passive believers who know how to consume content but don’t know how to make disciples.”
Some Parting Thoughts: A Call to Rethink Success
These leaders are still learning what it means to lead a disciple making church. It’s not easy, and it requires patience, intentionality, and a willingness to challenge the status quo—there will be people who don’t like the change you are being called to bring. But we’ve never been more convinced that this is the way forward.
Church growth isn’t just about seating capacity—it’s about sending capacity. A full building means nothing if the people inside aren’t being transformed and mobilized to reach the world.
So, let me ask you: What are you measuring? Because whatever you measure, you will prioritize. If we truly want to see lives changed and the gospel spread, it’s time to rethink our metrics. It’s time to measure what matters most—disciples who make disciples.
As another friend in the struggle says frequently: “Disciple on!”
