Measuring in the church

What's really important to measure in the spiritual realm? In the local church? Sometimes the answers are easy, but the implementation is not.
The following is a brief excerpt from a compelling 15 page report on this topic from Leadership Network.

“Today, people in our churches—and especially young people—want to devote their lives to a cause that’s bigger than themselves,” observes Ken Fong, pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church in Los Angeles, CA. Ken realizes the opportunity for pastors to enflame and direct the devotion of people in their churches, but also, he is aware of a significant change that needs to occur. He observes, “In our church, we’ve had to change what we measure. We no longer use size as our primary metric. Instead, we spend time and effort analyzing the compelling intangibles of the Spirit’s work: devotion, love, and obedience.” [italics added]
Kevin Doi, pastor of Epic Church in Fullerton, CA, suggests that the analysis of metrics needs to go back to the basics. “When we look at the Great Commandment to ‘make disciples,’ ” he reflects, “we need to ask if our time, energy and resources are being invested in the things Jesus values.” Kevin believes that the church must be evaluated on the metric of making committed, invested, serving disciples—and nothing less. “Every meeting we have, every plan we make, and every dollar we spend is analyzed by how well we invite people to develop a real relationship with Jesus and inspire them to live for him in their world.”

You can view the entire article here. I welcome your comments below.

The feet of Judas

You’re probably familiar with the story of Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet. To be frank, it’s not something I would naturally do. It was demeaning and degrading. It was serving in its most raw and unfiltered form. So this week I was reading the story again (in John 13), and I noticed something. Before John tells us about the footwashing, he says this:

The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. (John 13:2)

So before Jesus picks up the towel to serve these guys, he already knows that one of them is bent on betrayal. Can you imagine what it would be like to be washing the feet of someone who was scheming to turn you in? I suspect most of us would have just skipped over Judas, and gone on to the next disciple.

But Jesus serves Judas anyway. He serves the guy who’s going to hand him over. I’m glad I don’t have to make that choice of whether or not I’ll wash Judas’ feet. But I do have a choice to make, and so do you. The choice is to serve those around us, regardless of their “worthiness.” After all, it's impossible to love others without serving them.

Turning Vision Into Action

Mark & Jeannette share the challenging vision of how we can work together and make Chapter Two happen!