What Do Leading Metrics Look Like in Digital Ministry? Lessons from Everyday Sanctuary

Abigail Browka

A large brick-and-mortar church in Arizona recently shared its annual goals. Surprisingly, not one of them mentioned attendance. No weekly worship growth targets. No goal for new visitors. Instead, their focus was on actions within their control: in-person pastoral conversations, raising up young leaders, and amplifying diverse voices.

At first, this may sound radical. But it may be exactly the shift we need—not just in physical churches, but in digital ministries too.

As the creator of Everyday Sanctuary—a mobile app and podcast offering daily five-minute spiritual practices—I’ve wrestled with this same question: What does it look like to measure fruitfulness in a digital space?

Why Leading Metrics Matter in Digital Ministry

In a recent episode of the Pro Church Tools Show titled “Forget Attendance Goals—Track This Instead,” the hosts explored why leading goals—rather than lagging goals like attendance—can transform how ministries define success. The wisdom applies to digital ministries too.

Here’s why:

• Lagging goals measure outcomes after the fact. Think: app downloads, email opens, podcast plays. These tell part of the story—but are ultimately beyond your control. People choose whether to engage.

• Leading goals focus on the actions you can take that increase the likelihood of meaningful outcomes. These are proactive, consistent behaviors that lead toward fruitfulness over time.

In a physical church, a leading goal might be “Share a meal with 1,000 people this year.” In a digital ministry like Everyday Sanctuary, my leading metrics look different—but they follow the same principle:

• Post daily content that invites spiritual reflection.

• Reflect real human experience in timely, contextual ways.

• Maintain consistent rhythms of deep presence and spiritual practice.

In short, while I can’t control how many people download the app, I can commit to faithfully creating and curating content that meets people where they are, every day.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Goals: A Quick Primer

Before we go deeper, let’s clarify two common terms:

• Quantitative Goals are measurable and numerical: app downloads, website visits, podcast listens.

• Qualitative Goals focus on depth and experience: Are users experiencing peace? Are they finding spiritual nourishment in their daily lives? Are digital spaces feeling like everyday sanctuaries?

Both are important—but digital ministries, like physical churches, must resist over-prioritizing numbers that look good on a dashboard but miss the heart of the work.

Translating Leading Metrics into Digital Ministry Practice

For Everyday Sanctuary, I’ve begun thinking of leading goals as:

• Daily presence: Did I post today? Not to feed an algorithm, but to offer consistency as a spiritual practice.

• Contextual responsiveness: Are today’s practices reflecting what real people are feeling right now—anxiety, joy, exhaustion, longing?

• Honoring seekers: Is my content gentle, clear, and welcoming to the spiritually curious—not just the spiritually certain?

• Creating space, not noise: Are my posts adding peace, not pressure? Invitation, not obligation?

• “How many individual listeners or followers have I heard from personally this month?” Not as a vanity measure, but as a check on relational connection.

Shifting Focus, Measuring Faithfulness

Rather than obsessing over downloads or followers, what if we tracked:

• Daily acts of invitation

• Contextual spiritual care

• Amplifying diverse voices in digital space

• Building real relationships, even in pixels

It’s easy to chase metrics that the world values. But in digital ministry, as in the embodied church, we’re called to something deeper: creating spaces where the sacred can meet people in their everyday lives.

What would it look like for your ministry to shift from counting outcomes to practicing presence?

To listen to your audience as real humans—not just data points?

To measure connection, not just clicks?

That’s where transformation begins.
Not in algorithms, but in relationships.