In the previous post, we discovered who the real person behind seeing numbers as success is.  The fact is, numbers in your Youth Ministry are an inescapable reality.  You must deal with them.  While it is easy and tempting to dismiss them, Youth Ministry numbers matter.  In fact, they matter far more than we realize, and definitely more than we would like to admit.  Here are four reasons why:

1. Numbers matter, because students matter

Youth Ministry numbers represent students in your ministry.  Since we generally like students (most of them anyway), we should likewise generally like numbers in our ministries.  The higher the number, the more students to minister to.

2. Numbers matter, because they can help you gauge effectiveness

Without looking at the trajectory of numbers in your ministry, it will be hard for you to gauge the effectiveness of what you are trying to do.  If you are specifically trying to reach more students for example, you cannot know if you are being effective in doing so unless you look at the numbers.

3. Numbers matter because they drive your budget

The number of students you have directly affects your budget and the cost of the events you do.  Regardless of the size of your budget, the number of students in your ministry will affect the cost of your Youth Ministry.

4. Numbers matter because they affect the size of your team

The more numbers you have in your Youth Ministry, the more people you need on your team.  If you do not take into account the number of students you have, you will be unable to build an effective team.

As much as we hate to admit it, Youth Ministry numbers do matter.  You must take them into account in order to be effective in your Youth Ministry.  Without them you will be clueless about where you stand and where you are heading.

How much do you pay attention to numbers?  What things do you do to make sure you are keeping a healthy approach to them in your ministry?  Share in the comments below!

Photo credit: losmininos / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)