Metrics Matter
We like numerical metrics: they are easy to track and feel objective. Mass attendance tells us who is showing up on Sundays. Sacrament completion and school graduation help us assess how well people are meeting basic requirements. Volunteer involvement and the number of ministries provide a sense of how active our organizations are. Donations and tithes are important to give a tangible measure of financial health.
The traditional metrics are important tools for measuring organizational effectiveness. Poor performance in these areas can signal real problems. We know that a poorly managed budget, low enrollment, or infrequent participation can point to potential disasters or needed improvements.
While the standard metrics are important, the danger is thinking they are enough. This is because they fall short in measuring how well we live the Church’s true mission: personal encounter with Christ, the inner transformation of individuals, and engagement with the world as an apostle. (See article on the Church’s mission as encounter, transformation, and mission.) Instead of verifying if we are doing these things, they primarily quantify the prerequisites: attendance, completion, and activities.
The aim of this article is to explore the tension between using traditional metrics and fulfilling our true mission. Attendance, completion, and activities are necessary to parish life, but focusing only on these can actually undermine our deeper goals. This is because they are a means and foundation for our mission, not the mission itself. This inadvertently creates Catholic consumerism (a transactional approach to faith that lacks depth and transformative power), not authentic Catholic flourishing.
To simply acknowledge the importance of encounter, transformation, and mission, is not enough. We must make them our practical objectives. That means redefining the measure of success. Otherwise we run the risk of simply paying lip service to our authentic mission while reverting to a superficial emphasis on quantitative measurements alone. Devising better metrics for encounter, transformation, and mission is a key task to be worked on. However, the aim here is to spark critical reflection, pointing out the gaps and urging parishes and Catholic schools to look beyond existing approaches.
1. Attendance and Encounter
Many parishes and schools lean hard on attendance numbers as a key indicator of health. The parish tracks Mass attendance and the school tracks enrollment. Events are considered “successful” when they have good turnout. People can’t encounter Christ in the Eucharist if they don’t show up. However, attendance alone only tells us who is physically present—it does not reflect whether individuals are actually encountering the person of Christ in a meaningful way.
When we confuse attendance with encounter, we might feel comforted by a full parish or school cafeteria, but we miss the deeper question: Are our people actually encountering the love of Christ and being drawn into a personal relationship with Him? Do they know Jesus in a deeper, more intimate way than they did last year? Do they come to Mass regularly, but leave without any real connection?
It’s true an encounter with Christ requires people to show up first—but it isn’t enough. When attendance becomes the main metric for success, growing quantitative results often becomes a detriment to improving the qualitative results. The need for ever more attendance (or fear of diminishing attendance) easily gets in the way of encounter.
When attendance takes the proper place as a means to facilitate encounter, then our metrics are helpful. An authentic measure of encounter goes beyond numbers. It measures how deeply our teaching, sacraments, and community life facilitate a personal encounter with Christ.
2. Completion and Transformation
Completion metrics are also viewed as both a goal to reach for and a sign of success. We count how many people finish sacramental programs, complete catechesis curriculums, and graduate from Catholic schools. A Catholic can’t live a complete spiritual life without the sacraments. But ticking boxes, like preparing for and receiving baptism or confirmation, is not the same thing as personal transformation and this doesn’t happen automatically by going through the motions.
The problem with completion metrics is they do not distinguish between someone who has gone through the motions, fulfilling all the requirements, and someone who has experienced a deeper interior change. Yes, they may now be baptized, confirmed, or married, but is everything about them different as a result? Have they had that deep, life-altering transformation that St. Paul speaks about (2 Cor 3:18)?
This doesn’t mean that sacramental participation isn’t critical, because it is! That just means that going through the motions and routines are not enough. The parish and our priests are not sacramental vending machines. So much of personal growth absolutely requires active, conscious engagement. When completion is the focus, it’s easier to increase the numbers by reducing the need for real transformation.
When completion is seen as the general structure that provides the opportunity for a transformative process (instead of the transformative process itself), then our metrics are helpful. Transformation is a dynamic and ongoing process. The goal is not just to complete a program, but to experience lifelong growth in holiness. Confirmation is not the end, but the beginning of a matured faith lived out. Genuine transformation involves continuous conversion and growth to become more like Christ. Our programs facilitate this, and sacramental participation is key, but it goes well beyond the foundation of simple completion.
3. Activities and Mission
Most parishes and schools are proud of their activities: the number of ministries, events, and programs on their calendar. Our committees, social events, and service may make us feel like we’re accomplishing something. St. James is clear that we cannot simply wish others well and have good intentions. There must be action… but busyness is not the same thing as mission.
People may spend all their energy participating in internal programs, but never take the life changing experience of Jesus Christ outside the church walls to evangelize and transform the secular world. They might be hyper-involved in committees and volunteer many hours of their time, but not share the Gospel in their everyday lives. Lumen Gentium insists that the mission of the Church is not within, but to form disciples in order to transform them into apostles.
But ever increasing busyness and a multiplicity of activities is often a distraction from our true missionary call! Real mission is often messy, organic, and inefficient. We need to remove busyness and be able to waste time doing ministry like Christ and the early Church! Just like Jesus wasting time with the disciples, so much personal development for our staff happens not in planned meetings, but in spontaneous interactions with parish leaders.
We must avoid equating the mission of the Church solely with parish activities. The Church’s mission cannot be reduced to events, Bible studies, or fundraisers. These are merely tools meant to facilitate and support outward-facing evangelization and apostolic efforts. Once we recognize that such activities play a supportive role rather than being the mission itself, then measuring their success can serve as a helpful metric. However, the true measure of mission lies in how effectively Christians are equipped and inspired to transform their everyday lives into extraordinary testimonies of Christ’s love, forgiveness, and peace. That is what we need to really measure and aim for: Are we sending out missionary disciples who continue Christ’s work “in the fields” or are we simply running programs and events?
Conclusion
To effectively achieve our mission as leaders of Catholic organizations, we must courageously move beyond the metrics we’ve traditionally relied upon. While attendance, completion, and activities are key for assessing certain aspects of parish life, they must not overshadow the Church’s core mission—cultivating personal encounters with Christ, promoting inner transformation, and engaging the world as apostoles. If we focus solely on the old metrics as ends in themselves, we risk perpetuating Catholic consumerism.
For parishes to truly flourish, they must go beyond measuring what is easy to count. This isn’t merely a shift in priorities–it demands a re-envisioning of what effectiveness means for Catholic organizations. Leaders must ask themselves: Are our programs nurturing true discipleship? Are we witnessing tangible, qualitative changes in our community members’ lives? Are we empowering individuals to live the Gospel boldly in everyday life?
These are harder to measure, so the shift requires clear leadership, strong commitment, and a lot of creativity. Parishes can start by integrating new forms of qualitative assessment, eg. gathering personal stories of personal transformation. Asking the right questions about the impact of programs and activities is essential. Are they leading to authentic encounters? Are they facilitating true transformation? Are they equipping parishioners to live a bold call to mission in daily life? In doing so, they will not only measure success more effectively but will also cultivate an environment where true Catholic flourishing can take root and grow.
Traditional Metrics
Attendance
Measuring Presence, Not Encounter
These metrics focus on physical presence without necessarily reflecting deep engagement Sunday/holy day counts)
- Event attendance (e.g., how many show up for retreats or parish events)
- Sacramental preparation registration (e.g., First Communion, Confirmation, marriage prep)
- Catechetical program enrollment numbers (e.g., CCD, RCIA participation)
- Holy day attendance spikes (e.g., Christmas, Easter, Ash Wednesday)
- Parishioner demographic breakdown (e.g., age, culture, marital status, etc.)
- New member registration (e.g., number of new families registered)
- Website traffic (e.g., parish website visits and engagement)
- Social media engagement metrics (e.g., likes, shares, comments on posts)
Completion
Measuring Tasks, Not Transformation
These metrics focus on completing programs, sacraments, or formal requirements but don’t guarantee inner spiritual transformation or growth.
- Number of sacraments administered (e.g., baptisms, confirmations, weddings)
- Program completion rates (e.g., percentage who finish sacramental or religious education programs)
- Weekly confessions (count of confessions during scheduled times or seasons)
- Confirmation graduation rates (percentage of teens confirmed out of the enrolled population)
- School graduation rates (percentage of students finishing school)
- School retention rates (percentage of students returning for next academic year)
Activities
Measuring Busyness, Not Mission
These metrics track involvement in tasks, programs, and volunteer roles, but do not necessarily reflect a lived mission or real-world Christian impact.
- Number of active ministries (e.g., youth groups, adult Bible study, prayer groups)
- Volunteer participation rates (e.g., number of lectors, Eucharistic ministers, altar servers)
- Parish and school event participation (e.g., number of attendees at fundraisers, social activities)
- Service hours logged (e.g., volunteer hours for parish programs or school-based outreach)
- Tithing and donations (e.g., total financial contributions)
- Fundraising success (e.g., capital campaigns, special collections)
- Parental involvement in student activities (e.g., attendance at PTO meetings, family days)
- Standardized test scores and academic achievements (e.g., test results for school rankings)
- School disciplinary events (e.g., tracking student behavior and discipline)
- Post-sacramental retention (e.g., how many families stay active after completing sacraments)
- RCIA retention rates (e.g., percentage of RCIA participants who remain active after initiation)
- Facility usage rates (e.g., number of times parish facilities are booked for church or external events)
- Building maintenance metrics (e.g., cost and activity of maintaining church/school infrastructure)
New Metrics
It’s crucial to shift the focus from purely quantitative metrics (attendance, completion, and activity) to more qualitative measurements that focus on encounter, transformation, and mission. These new metrics should reflect how well individuals and communities are encountering Christ, being transformed by Him, and living as apostles in the world. Here is a list to help begin creative brainstorming on ways to do this in our parishes.
Encounter
Anecdotal Post-Event Feedback: After retreats or events, distribute simple feedback forms (online or paper) asking participants to describe how the experience impacted them. Creating a space for anecdotal information can provide a deeper qualitative assessment.
Conversations: In the attempt to standardize and become efficient we have lost the personal interaction necessary for authentic pastoral ministry. Parish staff or volunteers can follow up with new members or those who haven’t attended in a while. The goal is to ask if they are finding opportunities to encounter Christ in their return to parish life (e.g., “What brought you back?” or “How can the parish serve your spiritual needs?”).
Key Spiritual Practices: While quantitative numbers generally are do not provide good information about encounter, measuring the participation of certain spiritual practices can signal the overall health of a parish’s spiritual life. There are activities that generally require or may signal a deeper spiritual life: Frequent confession, regular spiritual direction, Mass attendance beyond the Sunday obligation, adoration, silent retreat participation, participation in groups directed specifically toward improving one’s spiritual life. It’s important to not fall into the trap of equating participation with encounter, but see this as a general sign of health.
Transformation
Personal Testimonies: We should regularly solicit and open up a space for people to share testimonies of transformation and spiritual growth. We should also expect to regularly hear unsolicited anecdotes spontaniously.
Sacramental Follow-Up: After significant sacraments parish staff or mentors can follow up personally to ask how receiving the sacrament has impacted their spiritual journey. We should not be afraid to honestly inquire if our sacramental preparation process has had any real emotional, spiritual, or practical impact in people’s lives. If it hasn’t, we need to seek to understand why not.
Generosity and Shared Responsibility: How many parishioners, after completing programs like sacramental prep or Bible studies, move into leadership or service roles? The key is not to measure participation, but how many of our people grow in generosity in living out the Christian life. How many of them take on the shared responsibility for loving, serving, and passing on the faith to others, instead of receiving.
Mission
Evangelization Preparation: When people seek to share the Gospel, it is obvious almost immediately how unprepared we feel. The more people who engage in seriously seeking to share the Good News, the more we will see seeking to prepare themselves better for that task.
Evangelization Participation: A simple review of the groups and activities people participate in will signal if a parish is focused on itself, on service, or on evangelization. A healthy community should see all of these areas thrive, but in proper balance.
Regularly Invited Visitors: When faith is lived publicly and evangelization is a regular way of life for a group of Christians, there is a steady flow of visitors who come because they were invited by existing members. Official structures of welcome may be created. However, we often see care, appreciation, and welcome for them as a spontaniously felt response.
