The paper was bright orange. The printing was faded, originating in pre-photocopier, Gestetner days. There were two sheets. I still have them, somewhere in those boxes two metres from me…

As a young pastor these sheets of paper captivated me. Developed by what was called the Association of Church Missionary Committees (ACMC), they described a series of barometers by which a local church could measure its progress towards being an effective missionary-sending church. Maybe eight barometers, with each one articulating the series of steps a local church could take from ‘just beginning’ to ‘being effective’.

I work in a ministry called Langham Preaching. We are about nurturing indigenous, grassroots movements of biblical preaching. About seven years ago we started playing with a series of our own ‘maturity barometers’. We identified seven areas, each with their own five descriptors, as we looked to articulate the journey from ‘just beginning’ to ‘self-sustaining’.

With input needed from around the world, this exercise took time. The words keep evolving. Now we call them ‘growth indicators’. We plan to refresh the descriptors again next year. However, slowly and surely, they are embedding themselves into the life of our preaching movements, enabling them both to audit how far they’ve come and provide a vision of where they still need to go. The plan is that in each year, each preaching movement will pause to complete this exercise…

A few weeks ago I was in Ethiopia, observing the work from across sub-Saharan Africa, as 75 leaders from 30 preaching movements gathered for a week together. 

There was a session on the growth indicators. 

It was fantastic.

For the record, the seven ‘growth indicators’ cover Leadership; Finance; Clubs (different words are used in different places, but these are the small groups where the transformation takes place); Facilitators, or trainers; Diversity; Impact; and Resources.

nice chatting

Paul