Changing the Scorecard Changes the Future
Tired of playing by rules that don't match your mission? Networks are where leaders are changing the game.
This is the second article in a short series on scorecards. The first article is: “The Church is Not a Business.”
You’ve felt it. That moment when you realize the metrics you’ve been protecting don’t actually measure what matters most.
The exhaustion. The loneliness. The creeping sense that you’re running a machine instead of shepherding a movement. And then the uncomfortable realization: the scorecard you’re playing by was never designed for the mission you actually care about.
This is where most leaders get stuck. They see the problem—the business logic that’s quietly shaping their leadership, their priorities, their very soul—but they don’t know what comes next. Naming the ache is one thing. Choosing a different path is another.
But here’s what I want you to know: the scorecard can be changed. And there’s a way forward that’s already being walked by leaders just like you.
The Scorecard You Inherited (And Didn’t Know You Did)
Let me be direct: the modern church didn’t set out to become a business. It happened gradually, almost innocently.
When churches grew, they needed systems. When complexity increased, they needed metrics. Attendance, budgets, weekend execution, growth curves—these weren’t evil. They were practical. They helped leaders manage what was becoming unmanageable. For a season, they served the mission.
But here’s what happens with every scorecard: it becomes formative. It doesn’t just measure outcomes; it produces leaders. It teaches us what success looks like. It shapes our prayers. It determines where we spend our emotional energy. Over time, it disciples our instincts.
And slowly, almost imperceptibly, we begin protecting the metrics rather than the mission.
The church is not a business. But if your scorecard is a business scorecard, your church will become one—regardless of what you say you believe.
This is not a moral failure on your part. It’s a structural one.
What Jesus Actually Measured
Here’s what strikes me about Jesus: he was remarkably indifferent to the metrics that mattered most to the religious establishment of his day.
The Pharisees measured purity. Jesus measured compassion.
The temple measured attendance and offerings. Jesus measured transformation and sending.
The disciples measured greatness by position and power. Jesus measured it by service and sacrifice.
In John 15, Jesus doesn’t say, “Whoever produces the most fruit is the greatest.” He says, “Whoever abides in me will bear much fruit.” The measure isn’t the harvest—it’s the relationship. The fruit follows from the connection, not the other way around.
And in John 17, when Jesus prays for the future of the movement, he doesn’t ask for bigger crowds or more resources. He asks for unity. “That they may all be one,” he prays. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus understood something we’ve forgotten: the gospel is not proven by scale. It’s proven by unity.
The Apostle Paul echoes this in Ephesians 4:11-13. The gifts of leadership—apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers—are given “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Notice what he’s measuring: not how many people the pastor can reach, but how many people the pastor can equip to reach others.
The scorecard in Scripture is multiplication through shared leadership, not accumulation through centralized vision.
The Three Paths (And Why You’re Probably Stuck Between Them)
Once you see the scorecard, you can’t unsee it. And that’s when the real choice begins.
Path One is to keep playing the game. You acknowledge the problem intellectually but operate the same way. Monday morning comes, the budget is due, the attendance numbers are down, and you slip back into the familiar rhythm. This path is seductive because it’s safe. You know how to win by these rules.
But it costs you something: the possibility of leading differently. The chance for your team to experience shared leadership. The witness of unity that Jesus said would make the gospel believable.
Path Two is to blow it all up. You see the problem so clearly that you decide the only solution is to dismantle the system entirely. You stop caring about attendance. You reject budgets. You abandon structure.
But this path has its own cost. Because institutions aren’t evil—they’re tools. And tools can be used well or poorly. A church with no budget is still making choices about money; they’re just making them invisibly. Blowing it all up often just replaces one set of problems with another.
Path Three is the harder one: reimagine and rebuild.
This is the path that keeps the best of what you’ve learned—the discipline, the clarity, the ability to manage complexity—while fundamentally reordering what you’re optimizing for. Instead of structure serving growth, it serves multiplication. Instead of a structure protecting the leader’s vision, it releases others’ vision. Instead of structure enabling control, it allows trust.
This path is more challenging because it requires you to grieve something. You have to let go of the metrics that made you feel successful. You have to release the control that made you feel safe. You have to trust people in ways that feel risky.
But here’s the encouraging part: this is the path that leads to sustainability. And you don’t have to walk it alone.
Networks: Where the New Scorecard Actually Lives
Here’s what I’ve discovered: networks are not a trend. They’re a corrective. They’re the practical pathway to changing your scorecard.
Networks don’t eliminate the local church. They reframe success. They change the scorecard from “How big is my church?” to “How healthy is our ecosystem?” And ecosystems, not empires, sustain movements.
When you enter a network of leaders—not as competitors, but as collaborators—something shifts. The metrics that once felt ultimate suddenly look small. You stop measuring your success by what you’re accumulating and start measuring it by what you’re releasing. You stop counting heads and start counting leaders being developed. You stop protecting your territory and begin celebrating multiplication wherever it occurs.
A network rewards what the business scorecard punishes: vulnerability, collaboration, shared learning, mutual sending.
In a network, you’re not alone at the top. You’re part of a web of leaders who are asking the same hard questions, wrestling with the same tensions, and discovering together what it means to lead differently. You’re learning from leaders who’ve already made the transition. You’re being challenged by peers who see what you can’t see about yourself. You’re being encouraged by the simple fact that you’re not the only one who feels the weight of the old scorecard.
And here’s what’s remarkable: when leaders start operating from a network scorecard instead of an institutional one, their local churches actually become healthier. Why? Because they’re no longer trying to be everything to everyone. They’re no longer measuring success by isolation. They’re no longer carrying the weight alone.
They’re free to be what they’re actually called to be—part of something larger than themselves.
This is what Paul meant when he told Timothy, “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2). The measure of Timothy’s leadership isn’t what he accomplishes. It’s what he reproduces. And that reproduction happens fastest, deepest, and most sustainably in community—in networks of leaders committed to each other’s growth and the multiplication of the mission.
The Future Is Being Shaped Right Now
Here’s the truth: the future of the church will be determined by the scorecards we choose today.
If we continue to reward isolation, we will end up with exhausted leaders.
If we continue to reward accumulation, we will get stalled mission.
If we continue to reward control, we will get fragility.
But if we reward friendship, trust, and sending, we will build resilience. We will get courage. We will get multiplication that doesn’t depend on any single leader.
The question is not whether change is possible. It is. Leaders are already making it. The question is: Will you be one of them?
An Invitation to Something Different
If you’re reading this and feeling the burden of the old scorecard, if you’re tired of bearing the vision alone, if you’re measuring success by metrics that don’t align with your mission, or if you’re contemplating a different approach to leadership, then a network is calling to you.
This isn’t an addition to your existing structure; it’s a fundamental reordering of how you measure success and lead.
The Reproducing Network Accelerator is specifically designed for leaders like you. It serves as a catalyst to help those who aspire to a kingdom scorecard establish a network. This network becomes a community of pastors and church leaders who have witnessed the scorecard and decided to transform it. They’ve chosen collaboration over competition, are committed to multiplying leaders rather than accumulating followers, and are discovering together what it means to lead as part of a movement rather than as a solitary operator.
This is where the new scorecard truly comes alive. Here, you’ll find the friendship, the challenges, the encouragement, and the practical wisdom you need to lead differently.
The future is different when leaders choose to lead together. And that future starts now—with you, with me, with all of us who are willing to change what we measure and how we lead.
Friends on mission—together. That’s the scorecard worth keeping. And that’s what’s waiting for you in a network.
Cheering You on!
Patrick ✌️