I once heard a great quote during a political campaign…It was;
“Statistics don’t lie but you can lie with statistics.”
I think that’s huge. I think that’s huge for us. What do we do with statistics? In a world where we don’t want to be driven by numbers, where we say that their not important, yet we can be fired because of them…what do we do?
I think statistics are very important as long as you keep them under control.
For instance, in Georgia, we have all of our kids take standardized testing. That’s a great decision when you use that from year to year. It gives us great information about how we are doing as a state from year to year. Those tests are even more helpful when you look at individual schools, students, teachers, etc. Where they get out of hand is when we compare ourselves to other states. Other states have different policies on what they do with special needs kids, ESOL kids, kids who are not college bound, etc. And every year all I hear is that GA students are 50th when it comes election time. We’ve totally missed the point and lied to ourselves and others with our statistics.
So, how do we lie to ourselves and others when it comes to statistics?
Here are a few tips to dealing with statistics.
1. Trends are always more important than a single number.
Not that attendance is the most important thing, but it’s easy to gauge and keep an eye on. The truth is, your boss is keeping an eye on that…I promise. The number of kids or students you have on Sunday is an important number but really doesn’t mean a thing. That number compared to last years corresponding Sunday is important but an ice storm, or a fall break on the school calendar can make that void. The further you can back away from it and look at averages the more the information tells you something important. The truth is I can have the largest student ministry in the world and be in total decline. The trend is more important than the number.
2. Don’t lie to yourself.
In the point above, are you being honest with yourself about what the numbers are saying or are you just happy with the numbers. When there’s a drop are you asking yourself the tough questions? There may be a good explanation for a bad change in statistics but then again, there may be a bad explanation. I heard John Townsend say “I’d rather live in a harsh reality than a comfortable psychosis” in a class one day and I haven’t gone a day without praying that God would help me do that. We can lie like crazy with the best intentions and the person we most often lie to is ourselves.
3. Don’t lose sight of the “1″
Don’t lose sight of what each number means. For instance, we have a bunch of baptisms lined up before the end of the year in middle school. The truth is if I focus on the specific number of kids being baptized and lose track of each individual that has taken this step of faith…if I don’t make sure their doing it for the right reasons…if I don’t help each of them take this step in the most supportive environment possible…I’ve failed as a pastor.
4. Does the statistic match the story?
Stories are great, but they communicate the experience of a sub-sub-sub set of your ministry. When you hear a story you should first celebrate it. You then need to ask yourself “is that the experience across my ministry?” This can be a great way we lie to ourselves.
5. Don’t Panic.
See #1 when numbers drop. Don’t ever start making major decisions on a single number. I have worked for (I was going to say followed…but that isn’t true) these leaders and I couldn’t do it for long. I’ll talk about this a little in my next post.
6. Decide what’s important.
Figure out what statistics are important to you. Which ones actually mean something about the health of you ministry? Armed with that information… create a “dashboard.” I’ll talk more about this concept on my next post. Stay tuned.
7. Ratios, ratios, ratios
This really goes to #6. Raw numbers are interesting but ratios really tell me about the current and future health of our ministry. I’ll talk quite a bit more about this on my next post as well.
