The Rural Pastor Podcast The Rural Pastor Podcast – Episode 73 – New Metrics For the Rural Church
Aug 22, 2025
The discussion tackles the loneliness in ministry, likening it to the struggles of the prophet Jeremiah. The hosts encourage a shift away from counting heads to valuing spiritual growth and community impact. They highlight innovative methods, like storytelling and a chronological Bible reading plan, to enhance engagement in rural settings. The focus is on fostering personal connections and celebrating incremental progress, positioning church leaders as proactive shapers of their ministry environment rather than mere reflectors of attendance.
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Episode notes
Numbers Are Not The Only Measure
- Measuring churches only by attendance misunderstands rural ministry realities and cultural trends.
- Andy Addis argues numbers alone can't be the dominant success metric amid national declines in weekly attendance.
Celebrate Life-Change Outcomes
- Celebrate non-Sunday impacts like restored marriages, new leaders, and students plugged into campus ministries.
- Danny Payne says scale down your lens and count those life-change indicators as success.
Count Community Impact
- Track community impact projects (e.g., adopting a school) and celebrate tangible increases year-to-year.
- Andy Addis advises naming and counting mission results as valid church metrics.
