There was something a bit off about the water bill at Brooke Road UMC in Rockford.  

Violet Johnicker is the pastor at Brooke Road and, like any attentive pastor, keeps a close eye on the finances of the church, including noting changes in the church’s utilities. The water bill seemed higher than normal a few months ago, but she wasn’t quite sure why. She reached out to her trustees and they first thought that there might be a leak somewhere in the building so they did their due diligence of the church’s plumbing, but didn’t find anything unusual. And then it dawned on them.  

Brooke Road has transformed their church building into a community center so that neighbors in their area can use the building from everything to computer classes to AA meetings in Spanish. More people in the building, of course, means increased water usage. When Violet told me this story, I immediately thought of a way to measure church vitality: an increase in the number of a church’s toilet flushes! 

I say this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but only somewhat. For years, I’ve been trying to figure out and codify ways that we can put together creative metrics to help get a sense of a church’s vital ministry. Worship attendance and financial giving are still important measurements, but there are other ways that we can ascertain life in a faith community.  

It’s been a joy and inspiration to travel around the conference in my first six weeks as Director of Congregational Development to listen to leaders and hear about the creative ministries that our churches are engaging in. (I’m doing my best to record these on my Facebook and Instagram accounts so follow me there @make_a_joyful_Illinoise).  

Can we also be creative in how we measure these ministries? Disciples UMC in Mount Morris has a monthly potato bar that brings people from around the area. Can we measure vitality by the number of potatoes shared with newcomers? South Shore UMC in Chicago is opening up its gym to youth in the community, including playing basketball and, this month, experimenting with archery. What if we counted the number of arrows that neighborhood youth are shooting at targets?  

Bishop Schwerin has emphasized that we are in a time of ministry experimentation, including creating new ways of measuring church vitality. Part of my job is to encourage new ways of connecting with our communities, provide resources for out-of-the-box thinking, and communicate what we’re attempting, both the things that go well and the things that don’t turn out like we’d hoped. All of this is part of our efforts to reach new audiences with the good news of Jesus Christ.  

 I’m excited to be on this journey with you. One flush at a time!