Barna: contend for transformation, not numbers

"One of the greatest challenges facing any ministry, no matter what its form is, has to do with what do you define as success," he says. "And we've got to break the [current] mold ... which says that success is about church attendance, and church budgets, and church programs, and church staff, and square footage and buildings.

"Jesus didn't die for any of that stuff. He died to see people's lives completely transformed so they try to be more like Him every moment of every day."

Bringing about such change in individual lives, he says, requires "aggressive" church leadership that is willing to take risks. "Effective leaders must spearhead a thoroughly conceived and highly targeted plan that runs a significant level of risk and promises attractive returns on people's investment of themselves," Barna says. "Merely tinkering with the existing system is a recipe for irrelevance and abandonment." More