One of the jobs of church leaders including pastors, board members, and lay leaders is to monitor the overall health of the congregation. But what needs to be 
measured? I thought I would introduce 10 important numbers that I believe church leaders need to know as they look at the big picture of the health of the church.
5 = This is the number of years it takes for a typical church plant using a traditional model that leans toward attraction as a way of gathering new people to turn inward and begin losing its missional focus and vision. This seems to be true for most North American churches. To arrive at this number, I am making an anecdotal assumption.
7 = 7 is good, manageable number for a church board or leadership team. I also recommend 7 as the number of people to place on a Pastor Search Team.
12 = This is the ideal number of adults for comprising a small group that serves primarily to minister through fellowship, Bible study, leadership development and evangelism. Many churches call these groups Life Groups or Community Groups. This is also a great goal for recruiting and growing a small group in your church.
18 = When a small group reaches 18 or more in number, sociologists say the group takes on Middle-size group dynamics and required different kinds of structure and communication. It is recommended that when a small group reaches between 12-17, it should plan for and become intentional about multiplying into 2 small groups.
20 = This is a number that flags an urgent need for revisioning and church revitalization. If your average church membership tenure is 20 years or more in the church, it's a sign that the church is having difficulty reaching and assimilating new people. The leadership needs to take action.
30 = This number comes from Guy Kawasaki's 10-20-30 Rule of Presentation, 30 is the smallest size font that you should use for Power Point presentation slides. A corollary is the older your average adult audience is, the larger the font size.
40 = I refer this to the "Critical Mass" for multiplication. This figure represents the number of adults who are committed to launching and planting a new church or another congregation within the church, and who are needed before the launch of another church or congregation.
75 = There is a natural barrier to continued growth once a congregation reaches the number 75 in average attendance. This is purely sociological and is based on a North American context. It takes an intentional change in structure, leadership style, communication patterns, and sometimes Pastoral leadership to grow beyond this average attendance.
80 = When a church meeting place is perceived to be 80% full, it will tend to stay at that level of growth and will have a much more difficult time attracting new people. This number also appears to be true of church parking lots. One way churches deal with this is to begin a second congregation and another is to help launch a new church plant.
200 = There is another natural barrier to continued growth once a congregation reaches the number 200 in average attendance. This is also purely sociological and is based on a North American context. It also takes an intentional change in structure, leadership style, communication patterns, and sometimes Pastoral leadership to grow beyond this average attendance. This is the most difficult attendance barrier to grow beyond.
What number would you add to this list?
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