How Should We Measure Success in the Church?

Most people measure successful churches by numbers in attendance, balanced budget, size of staff, or impressiveness of facilities.

What if we measured success by:

• The number of cigarette butts in the church parking lot.
• The number of pictures on the church wall of unwed mothers holding their newborn babies in their arms for the first time.
• The number of former convicted felons serving in the church
• The number of phone calls from community leaders asking the church’s advice
• The number of meetings that take place somewhere besides the church building
• The number of organizations using the church building
• The number of days the pastor doesn’t spend time in the church office but in the community
• The number of emergency finance meetings that take place to reroute money to community ministry

Metaphors for the Church

Metaphor: Church as Corporation.

There are two types of people, employees and consumers.
There are two types of people, Christ-followers and not Christ-followers.
Which are the employees and which are the consumers?

Metaphor: Church as Sport.

There are two types of people, the team (coaches/athletes/etc.) and the spectators.
There are two types of people, regenerate and unregenerate.
Which are the team and which are the spectators?

Metaphor: Church as Cruise Ship.

There are two types of people, cruise staff and cruisers.
There are two types of people, those who have the Spirit and those who don't.
Which are the cruise staff and which are the cruisers?

Metaphor: Church as household.

There are two types of people, family and guests of family.
There are two types of people, children of God and children of the world.
Which are the family and which are the guests?

Metaphor: Church as body-builder.

There are two types of body-builders, those who work out to look at their muscles and those who work out to use their muscles.


That's All I Have To Say About That...

2 Severe Misconceptions About Church

Thinking Biblically About the Church

Two severe misconceptions which should be corrected:
 A) Pastors do the work of the church.
 B) The work of the church happens on Sunday.

Biblically, the reality should be: 
 A) Pastors equip the church to engage Christ's mission
 B) The work of the church happens in the world.

Checklist Christianity: How to Measure Spiritual Success

One of the questions I often get asked when talking about discipleship, spiritual formation, and small groups is:

"How do you measure success?"

I'm not a big fan of this question. See, there was a time in my life, when I could have easily answered that question. Back in the day we (me and lots of other Christians like me) used a formula to measure how spiritual someone was. It looked like this:

SQ = [(SUa+TUv)/26]+[(SUp+WPM)/52]+[(TRM+MC)/5]

8 is the perfect score, meaning you are very spiritual.

Of course you could apply a bonus formula to gain two extra bonus points if you wanted. Those two points could come in very handy if you fell short of 8, or if you wanted to be elected to a committee during the annual fall elections. A score higher than 8 virtually assured you a spot on the committee of your choice.

The bonus formula was as follows:

BSQ = SQ+KJV+BAPT

If you grew up in a church like mine, this is all old hat to you. You've seen these equations many times before: on overhead projectors, flannel-graph boards, and maybe if your church was high tech, via slide projector.

For those of you who are seeing these formulas for the first time, let me translate:

• SQ is "Spiritual Quotient". This is your level of spiritual maturity.
• Of course, BSQ is "Bonus Spiritual Quotient".
• SUa is Sunday morning attendance. TUv is Tuesday Visitation attendance. Add up all your Sunday morning and Tuesday evening participation over the course of a year, and divide that number by 26.
• SUp is Sunday evening attendance. WEP is Wednesday evening prayer meeting. Again, add up all your participation over the course of the year, and divide this number by 52.
• TRM is "Tent Revival Meeting" and MC is "Missions Conference". Add up your participation in these and divide by 5. (If your church did more than one of these a year, or they lasted more than 5 days, you're at a definite advantage)
• Bonus points for using a King James Version Bible and for calling yourself a Baptist.

This process of determining spiritual maturity makes things very easy. You can quickly determine who is the most spiritual person in your church, as well as those who probably need to sit closer to the front on Sundays. Deacons and Elders can use these formulas to carry out church discipline and Sunday School Teachers could regularly have their students work out their own scores to inspire them to do better in the coming months.

I personally have several trophies in my basement from my four consecutive "perfect 10" years. (That string was broken when my mother unknowingly gave me a New American Standard Bible for my birthday)

[pause]

[breathe]

[I'm just kidding]

But seriously. Too often people have the idea that Christianity is just about checking off the right boxes. And if you attend all the right things at the right times, then you're going to come out all right on God's scorecard. I call this, "Discipleship by Attendance".

Marianne and I were talking tonight about how difficult it is for some people to shift out of this way of thinking. Particularly if they were reared in a church which emphasized attendance as the primary means of spiritual growth. It took me years to shake loose from this kind of thinking, which too often exhibited itself in my life when I judged others for their lack of attendance at "church stuff." My assumption was that their non-presence represented a spiritual immaturity. Little did I know that my judgement on them for their non-presence represented a much deeper level of spiritual immaturity.

So now, when I get asked how I measure success in discipleship... I sigh deeply and then hem and haw about how it's hard to measure the work of the Spirit. I mention the parable of the sower and the soils and point out that sometimes initial growth is false growth. I talk about Galatians 5 and explain that the fruit in ones life being a dashboard to measure by, but not a checklist to live by. And I keep talking about lots of stuff like that until they're sorry they asked. But I don't really ever talk about measuring success... Because I'm pretty sure as one who doesn't sit on a throne and won't be presiding over any judgments at the end that that's not my job.

But if you really want to know what I think, I have identified 8 markers that I think are Biblical evidences that the Spirit is working in someone. I guess if you want to call these measurements, you can. I think of them more as landmarks along a journey. Here they are:

1. Knowing who God is and what He expects from men
2. Relying on Jesus for salvation from sin and a new way of life
3. Growing in knowledge, devotion, and influence
4. Living out the one another commands in a community of fellow believers
5. Leveraging God's resources to meet the needs of those in close proximity
6. Living uniquely in the world so as to demonstrate the glory of God and bring those in proximity to repentance
7. Seeking to constantly share the message of Christ and show the mission of Christ.
8. Expanding influence to impact people around the world for the good of the Kingdom

I know at first glance this kind of list doesn't seem to be any different than the ones I joked about. But, in my mind at least, this list is far less about the actual "doing" and far more about the actual "being." Any time we try to put "being" type concepts into words we run the risk of slipping into the Pharisaical legalism of "maturity by list", so we need to be careful even with a list like this.

But in the end, the main idea is simple. The more we look like Jesus (the revealed, biblical Jesus who is the image of the Father; not like some Jesus that we made up) the more spiritually mature we are.

Hey, I'm just sayin'.

Measuring Success in the Church

Numbers can never tell an accurate story of a church's success. To assess a church, a group or a ministry's level of success or failure with any type of numerical measure is to impose upon the church an institutional criteria and burden never discussed in the New Testament.

The successful church, the successful ministry or group within a church, and the successful Christian is the one who is faithful, not the one who is large or rich.

Faithfulness for a church, for a ministry or group within a church, or for an individual believer is measured in obedience and worship.

By obedience, I mean striving to be and do what Scripture has clearly prescribed; and trying to accurately determine and live out what Scripture has implied.

Obedience precedes worship because:

A) True obedience is an act of worship.

B) Worship without obedience is disgusting to God.

By worship, I mean utilizing every resource available to appropriately revere and represent God.

Church people often ask questions like, "How many small groups do we have?" or "How many people are in small groups at our church?". While most pastors could, with a minor amount of effort, know the answers... those might actually be the wrong questions.

I think the right questions are:

"How are our spiritual formation efforts enabling people to live lives obedient to God?"

"How are our spiritual formation efforts equipping people to worship God with all the resources He has given them."

That's all for now.

5 Lists of 3. Simplifying the Process of Spiritual Formation

Captain Jack Sparrow held one of the Pirate Lord's eight pieces of nine. I just get a kick out of that term. Today, I give you five lists of three.

These are five different lists which each seek to describe (not necessarily define) the process of spiritual formation. These lists are not meant to be comprehensive, nor are they solely instructional; but hopefully they provide some opportunity for reflection. Here we go:

1. A Church's Approach to Spiritual Formation:

• Teach Biblical Content
• Encourage Spiritual Disciplines
• Empower Christlike Mission

2. A Group Approach to Spiritual Formation:

• Partnering for growth together
• Serving the church together
• Engaging the world together

3. A Personal Approach to Spiritual Formation:

• Be a disciple
• Be invitational
• Be missional

4. A Progressive Approach to Spiritual Formation:

• Leave Life (for Christ's)
• Live Life (of obedience)
• Give Life (for others)

5. A Progressive Approach to Spiritual Formation (2):

• Obey
• Love
• Bear Fruit

What do you think? What would you add? What would you subtract? What would you change? What needs further clarity?

Understanding Spiritual Formation 5: The Discipline of Community (continued)

As I continue with the theme of community as a spiritual discipline, here are some more thoughts to unpack this idea.

(previous posts in this series)

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part One

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Two

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Three

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Four

Bonhoeffer writes:

"one who wants more than what Christ has established does not want Christian brotherhood. He is looking for some extraordinary social experience which he has not found elsewherel he is bringing muddled and impure desires into Christian brotherhood. Just at this point Christian brotherhood i threatened most often at the very start by the greatest danger of being poisoned at its root, the danger of confusing Christian brotherhood with some wishful idea of religious fellowship."

Community is more than touchy-feely togetherness, or a group of Christian men sitting at a pub discussing theology, or a group of young mom's crying together.

Community at its heart must be interested in seeing its members formed by the Spirit through each other. This will take the form of mentoring sometimes, and sometimes it will just be people speaking truth in love to one another. Again, Bonhoeffer writes, "God has put this Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men...Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him." We need each other if we are to be formed.

Emma's former gym was a great picture of this. Her coach had over 30 years experience. Over the years, many of his former gymnasts came back to the gym to be teachers and coaches. On any given night, he could be seen working with a group of team girls while all around the gym his former students (of many different ages) are working with other girls (and boys), teaching them the the basics of gymnastics. His methodology touched many more girls than he ever could, because he indoctrinated his students with a love of gymnastics that they wanted to pass on.

As we live in community with one another, we should be indoctrinating each other with a love for Jesus that needs to be passed on. This is true community!

View All The Posts in This Series

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part One

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Two

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Three

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Four

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Five

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Six

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Seven

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Conclusion

Understanding Spiritual Formation 4: The Discipline of Community

(previous posts in this series)

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part One

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Two

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Three

Just before Jesus left his disciples, he promised that he would send another “counselor” to take his place. The Spirit he was sending was the same Spirit that had been in Him, the samd Spirit that had been enabling his earthly ministry.

The Spirit would indwell Jesus’ followers, and continue his ministry in their lives, forming them to be like Jesus. Everyone who takes up the call to follow Jesus receives the Spirit. If you follow Jesus, you have the Spirit.

Jesus’ Spirit is in you…forming you to be like Him. You need to open yourself to the formative work of the Spirit. Praying, meditating, reading the Bible, memorization, fasting, contemplation, and many other methods can open you to the Spirit. He works through all these activities to make you more like Christ.

But Jesus was/is most interested in seeing the Spirit form you through your relationships with others. Before he promised the Spirit, Jesus commanded his disciples to “Love one another.”

This was a new command to them. They picked it up and ran with it. It became the foundational teaching of the church in its earliest days. When the apostles wrote letters to other churches, they often included ideas on how to love one another. They wrote “be devoted to one another” , “serve one another” , “accept one another” , “build one another up” and many, many more.

Loving one another is the conduit for the Holy Spirit’s formative work in our life.

After Jesus promised the coming of the Spirit, he prayed for everyone who would ever believe his message (that means that if you believe in him, he was praying for you). His prayer was very simple.

He prayed that we would be unified.

When the people of God are united to each other in love, the Holy Spirit can perform his formative work in a powerful and effective way. It’s really kind of simple. The Holy Spirit makes us look like Christ by using those around us to influence us in positive ways.

This is “Community”.

It’s a collection of people sharing their lives with one another for the glory of God.

God is glorified when we look like him.

We look like him when we look like Jesus.

We look like Jesus when the Spirit forms us.

The Spirit forms us when we place ourselves into community.

God’s new creation is a community.

And it is very, very good.

View All The Posts in This Series

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part One

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Two

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Three

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Four

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Five

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Six

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Seven

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Conclusion

Understanding Spiritual Formation 3: Celebration as a Spiritual Discipline

(previously in this series)

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part One

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Two

S.D.Gaede writes in Belonging, "The Christian community derives its being from the fact that certain things are true. If they are not true, we have no reason for community."

We gather weekly to celebrate those truths. A list of the truths we celebrate when we gather might include: grace, redemption, creation, re-creation, etc...

In our celebrations we should be spiritually formed, because we leave as different people then when we arrived. We may be more convinced of those truths, we may be questioning the application of the truths, we may be anticipating our next gathering, we may feel more connected to the truths, we may have a greater sense of identification with the community because of the truths...

What should these kinds of truth-oriented celebrations look like? In no particular order, I would suggest:

• They should be triumphant -- The greatest truth of all is that good has/will triumph over evil. In the Matrix trilogy, the scene of celebration at Zion gives us a feel for anticipatory triumph. Our celebrations should awaken in us a moving sense of the transcendence of God, and of our anticipation of His ultimate victory.
• They should be meaningful -- The truths which bind us together should be proclaimed in a relevant way so that our celebration is informed. Some churches are so taken with the celebration itself that it has become disconnected from any meaning... this almost feels like idolatry.
• They should be participatory -- We are all celebrating, we are all the community. I think of a pep rally for my MSU Spartans. Even though we may all be sitting in rows, we will be extraordinarily participatory. Why don't our celebrations look like pep rallys?
• They should be reflective -- The truths we celebrate have particular meaning for us. We should constantly be weaving our story into the fabric of the communities truths. This requires honest reflection. We do a great disservice to ourselves when we celebrate without reflection.

So there you have it. Celebration as formative activity. I'd love some feedback, this is still a little heuristic.

View All The Posts in This Series

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part One

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Two

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Three

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Four

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Five

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Six

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Part Seven

Understanding Spiritual Formation: Conclusion

10 Questions to Evaluate the Spiritual Formation Process of Your Church

Since I love lists, I often save good ones I find. A few years ago, I came across this one from Mark Waltz. He asked the following ten questions about spiritual formation in the church. Back then, I thought it would be fun to answer the questions from my perspective and then get feedback from you as to whether or not you see things like this?

Looking back at my answers several years ago, I am at once encouraged because I still very much believe what I wrote then. However, I am also a bit frustrated because I'm not sure we've done an effective job in accomplishing some of the things I wrote about then.

What do you think? Were these good answers then? Are they good answers now? Do we need to re-look at some of this stuff?

10 Questions to Ask about the Spiritual Transformation Process in Your Church

1. How is spiritual transformation defined in our church?

The work of the Holy Spirit in transforming us to the image of Christ who is the perfect representation of the Father.

2. What does a "win" look like in spiritual transformation?

For us, it is when an individual commits themself to a community of believers.

3. In what ways is spiritual transformation expressed in our mission, vision and values?

We call ourselves "commuities connecting to God and others". Point of Connection #3 is "Partnering with Others"

4. How are we trusting or not trusting the Holy Spirit to transform the lives of our people?

Because we believe the Spirit's primary "weapons of transformation are the church and the Word, we emphasize those two things, believing the Spirit will work through those efforts.

5. Does this feel like an “add-on” to everything else we’re doing... or how is it integrated into the fabric of our church life?

As we simplify and sharpen our focus, it will more and more become our DNA and less and less "another program/ministry"

6. Is there evidence that our people are engaging spiritual transformation as a lifestyle? If not, what's preventing that reality?

yes and no. many are committing themselves to the life-sharing relationships which lead to transformation, however we are likely not at 50% yet, so there is much to be done.

7. What key words, what important concepts will we use to cast vision and create a culture of spiritual transformation that is embraced by our people?

Explore, Launch, Partner, Serve, Engage; Formative, Caring, Missional

8. What environments will we intentionally continue or create to help our people engage the story of the Bible in their journey of spiritual transformation?

Our celebration gatherings and LIFEGroups will continue to be THE PRIMARY vehicles we use for spiritual transformation. Simplifying to these focused "environments" allows our people to be "in the bubble" less because after all, someone did say, "the fields are white to harvest...the laborers are few."

9. How do we help our people engage spiritual disciplines as pathways rather than task items to mark off their to-do lists?

I think this is why disciplines must be tied to community. i engage in spiritual disciplines not for my own benefit, but so that i can better image God. my vertical relationship is no more mature than my horizontal relationships.

10. How will we measure and celebrate spiritual transformation in the lives of our people?

this is the next step. we are currently identifying "landmarks" of spiritual formation that we will encourage our LIFEGroups to celebrate together. There are some that can be celebrated in our gatherings... baptism is the first that comes to mind.