Category Archives: engaging culture

Book Review: The Passionate Intellect

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Book Review: The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind by Alister McGrath (InterVarsity Press)

We live in a post-Christian America.

In fact, Western society as a whole has seen an erosion of the values and principles that were once based on Biblical ideals. How are we to respond to the most vocal of our critics? How are we to think theologically about current issues of science, postmodernism and the new atheism? Does Christianity have any wisdom to share in the marketplace of ideas?

Alister McGrath does an amazing job of not only helping us as Christians respond to our critics, but he does a fair amount of exposing their shallow worldview himself.

I highly recommend this book! The best way I know how to convince you to read it is to simply share an excerpt from chapter 10. The first six chapters of this book, McGrath gives a compelling argument for “the purpose, place and relevance of Christian theology.” Then, he turns to actually confronting various issues such as how we should think about science, atheism, and creation and evolution. This second section is entitled “Engaging with Our Culture”.

The following excerpt is just one of the many ways McGrath shows his superior rhetorical skills. In this section, he exposes and demolishes the arrogance of the new atheists who claim to be more “enlightened” than the other 90% of the world who believe in God. In fact, for awhile they even tried to get people to refer to them as “Brights”. Here is how McGrath responds:

The notion of the Bright, however arrogant and smug it may be, is an essential element of the new atheist worldview. The new atheism vigorously asserts the fundamental moral and intellectual autonomy of humanity. Human beings are intelligent and rational beings who can shake off superstitious beliefs and exult in the triumph of reason and science. But where do these beliefs come from? If there is no God, it follows that religion is the creation of human beings. Hitchens and Dawkins excoriate what they see as the delusional, irrational and immoral lies of religion. Yet, from their atheist perspective, these ideas were invented by human beings – the same human beings who they exult as models of rationality and morality. Hitchens appeals to human rationality and morality in making his case for atheism, yet that same rationality and morality gave rise to religious ideas and values, which he regards as degenerate, pathological and oppressive.

Religion is the serpent in the rationalist garden of Eden, the seducer of otherwise reasonable people. The contradictions and failures of recent “enlightened” human history – which include the awkward arrival of Nazism and Stalinism, not to mention weapons of mass destruction – are put down, somewhat implausibly, to the resurgence of religion. Not even the rhetorical skills of the greatest new atheists have been able to weave Stalinism into their narrative of the obstinate persistence of religious belief. The real problem for secular rationalists is that having made human beings the “measure of all things” (Alexander Pope), they find themselves embarassed by the wide range of beliefs human beings have chosen to hold – most notably, a widespread belief in God. If belief in God is a human invention, and if the crimes committed in the name of religion are thus of human origin, humanity appears to be rather less rational than the new atheist worldview allows. The new atheism criticizes religion as the enemy of humanity, hoping that nobody will notice that their own theory holds it to be a human creation. You don’t need to be very bright to make this connection.

…

Alister McGrath

My concern, however, is not the intellectual smugness, cultural arrogance or political foolishness of the new atheism at this point, but its fundamentally divisive nature. This crude belief system divides the world between the “Brights” and the “dims,” creating a damaging polarity, which the new atheism asserts is the characteristic of religion. Atheism, it seems, is just as bad as its alternatives in this respect, having now added intellectual snobbery to its vices and nothing obvious to its virtues. (McGrath 165-6)

Wow!

I would love to read anything the “new atheists” have to say in response to “the Passionate Intellect”. I have a suspicion that they will simply try to ignore McGrath’s far superior argumentation and will continue bashing religion with lame, unsubstantiated, 18th century arguments that even us “dims” can pick apart!

What do you think?

Shocking Stats from the book Radical

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Radical is a new book by David Platt that came out earlier this year. This book struck a nerve and I have personally talked to dozens of people who are using this book with their small group, listening to it on cd, or are giving away copies to their friends. This is a book that American Christians need to read!

I’ve briefly reviewed Radical here, but I wanted to share a few shocking stats from the book. Of course, many of these stats are common knowledge, but if they haven’t shocked us into action, then they need to be shared again and again.

So, without further commentary, here are some of the most shocking stats from Radical: Taking back your faith from the American Dream (emphasis is mine…as if any of these needed emphasis):

Shocking Stats

♦ 6,783,421,727 – current population of the world (at time of writing) [76]

♦ 4,500,000,000 – population of the world that is separated from God (very conservative estimate) [76]

♦ ”Today more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than two dollars per day. That’s nearly half the world struggling today to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of money I spend on french fries for lunch.” [108]

♦ ”More than twenty-six thousand children today will breathe their last breath due to starvation or a preventable disease.” [108]

♦ ”If you and I have running water, shelter over our heads, clothes to wear, food to eat, and some means of transportation (even if it’s public transportation), then we are in the top 15 percent of the world’s people for wealth.” [114-5]

♦ 41% of the world’s poor live in India. [134]

♦ ”More than five thousand people groups, totaling approximately 1.5 billion people, are currently classified as ‘unreached’ and ‘unengaged’”. [158]

What are your thoughts after scanning through these numbers? What other stats do you want to share that need to shock us into action (please cite your source)? How will these numbers change the way you act TODAY?

Outreach Events in Swampscott and Marblehead

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Over the past few weeks, my wife and I have been involved in a lot of opportunities to do outreach in Swampscott and Marblehead. We are planting a church in Swampscott (RRCC) and meanwhile, we are still members of a church in Marblehead (GCC) that is becoming more outward-focused.

In this post, I want to share a few things we have been doing and offer some bullet point lessons we’ve learned about how to make events like these a success for our community.

High Seas VBS

Grace Community Church has been hosting a Vacation Bible School in Marblehead for years. We can only host about 100 kids due to space limitations. This is such a popular event in our community that registration is closed within weeks. My wife led the kindergarten class and this was her first VBS experience. Here are a few thoughts about how to make VBS a successful outreach opportunity:

  1. Go bananas with the decorations! I once led a VBS that had a submarine theme. So, we created a huge submarine facade that covered the entire front entrance to the church! This took a huge volunteer commitment, but the kids loved entering the church through a port hole.
  2. Train leaders early and often. If leaders can’t commit to 3 out of 4 training sessions (for example), they probably shouldn’t volunteer for such an important event.
  3. VBS should be a momentum builder. How is it tied into a larger, year-long outreach strategy in the church? What is the follow up process? How about creating a miniature VBS every Sunday morning during regular worship services.

International Barbecue

A member of GCC has been hosting a barbecue for international students for years now. This year, there were close to 75 students and their families from places such as Colombia, Korea, China, Japan, and Morocco. The internationals spend the day in Marblehead enjoying the Festival of Arts, then they arrive at the Steadman’s home by 4pm. We eat around 5pm and then have a program at about 6pm with some music and a few testimonies. All of this is followed by dessert. People from our church in Marblehead bring food and interact with the internationals. Here are a few thoughts about this ministry:

  1. Every church near a college campus should have some sort of outreach to students and their families – even more important in a place like Boston where there are students from about 145 nations studying in Boston area schools.
  2. Ongoing relationships are easy to form with international students and their families through English conversation, TOEFL preparation, and simply inviting them into your home. They are longing for these sorts of interactions with people.
  3. Again, is there a larger strategy to this sort of ministry? How can a ministry such as this get support from the Body? Are leaders being developed to help with the ministry? Are there opportunities for internationals to be welcomed into the Body?

Strawberry Festival

We had a team of students help us pass out gallons of strawberry lemonade at the annual Strawberry Festival in Swampscott. We included a small flyer that gave our website and phone number and some information about an upcoming Bible study series.

  1. Taking advantage of town events shows an investment in the community. In addition to handing out lemonade, it would be even better if we stayed late and helped clean up.
  2. Having t-shirts for our church for this event would have been extremely helpful. We thought about it in plenty of time but just didn’t have the budget for it this year.
  3. I think in the future I would prefer to just give the gift and not advertise for anything. That’s the difference between servant evangelism and marketing. Servant evangelism might include a note saying, “A gift from Red Rock Community Church”. Marketing says, “this gift is so that you will think more favorably about what we want you to do.” Even still, it was a fun time and a lot of people were very appreciative (though some wished the lemonade was spiked…maybe next year…kidding!).

Fourth of July Parade

Okay, so this event was awesome! Every year in Marblehead there is a parade for the children on the Fourth of July. This year it happened to fall on a Sunday and the parade was at 10am. Of course, we could’ve complained and asked the organizers to move the event to a more amenable time (how dare they organize something when everyone is supposed to be in church, right?) However, we decided to simply have a shorter worship service at 8:45 (instead of 9:30) and then go and participate in the parade! We had 20 children and 18 adults marching in the parade and we had about 15 more volunteers giving out water at three separate “watering holes”. We all wore matching t-shirts, decorated bikes with red, white, and blue, played music from our VBS from the week before, and even had a float that someone made to look just like our church!

  1. We were able to tie this event in with our 200th anniversary year celebration. Our theme this year is “Excited about Grace” so we carried our banner and we had homemade signs saying Excited about… children, God’s love, families, the Bible, etc.
  2. We walked in the parade under the “historic” category (other categories were current events, fun, etc.). This made our reason for walking relevant and it wasn’t forced. Celebrating 200 years in Marblehead and walking in the “historic” category just made sense.
  3. We even won a cash prize of $50! We’re still trying to figure out the reason, but the point is, people noticed us! A lot of people along the parade route had big smiles on their faces and kids from VBS held the week before recognized the music we were playing.
  4. As noted before, being a part of your town’s events shows a commitment to the town and raises the awareness of your church’s activity in the community.

Well, those are just a few of the opportunities we had to do servant evangelism, children’s events, and making connections with international students. This kind of stuff is fun! Really there are two kinds of people in a church, suckers and servants. You are a “sucker” if you see the church as a group of people who exist to serve you! If that describes your perspective then you are sucking the life out of your church (though there may be times in your life when you need more than you can give, but that’s the exception not the rule).

On the other hand, a servant is someone who gets involved in reaching out to the community through events like the ones listed above. Church isn’t a place to get but to give. It isn’t a place to be served but to serve. Plus, it’s simple and fun. The parade took very little commitment and lots of smiles. Kids had a lot of fun participating. VBS took much more commitment but it also has a huge impact in the community. Regardless of the opportunity, just make sure you are doing something to show love to your neighbors!

Sunday’s Coming Video

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I thought this video was extremely funny! Then I thought it was sad! Then I was confused!

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

How did you react? I laughed because the video is well made and uses satire to drive home a point. I was sad because I realized too many churches don’t get the point. Then I was confused because I’m not sure what the point is either, based on who created the video in the first place.

Let me explain! (but before I get too serious, take a minute to laugh…it is, and was meant to be, a funny video!)

The Multi-site Megachurch Worship Form

NorthPoint Community Church is on the cutting edge of the multi-site megachurch model. You can agree or disagree with this model but there’s no doubt that thousands of people’s lives are being transformed and men and women are becoming Jesus’ disciples through their ministries.

The confusion sets in because it seems that the North Point Media team are creating a parody of their own services. A large part of the NPCC resources go into their weekly services (or worship show depending on your positive or negative impression of what NPCC does each Sunday). NPCC is bringing more people to Jesus than I’ve ever met so I am not throwing stones, I’m just asking questions.

In his book, The Disciple-Making Pastor, @billhull says, “You can always get a crowd, if you demand very little and put on a show.” I would add that the better the show, the bigger the crowd. I don’t suggest that NPCC demands very little but they definitely put on a great show.

So, what is NPCC encouraging us to do in this video? Eschew the “show”? Will they? Is the answer to simply reorganize our music and message so that it doesn’t fit the form in this video? Is their form engaging culture? Does the culture scoff at this particular form? Or, perhaps NPCC is engaging culture in a more relevant and life changing way than I ever will?

Your Corporate Worship is Not Valid!?

Another stream of questions: Is a pattern of corporate worship inherently a bad thing? Can we have a standardized way (or “traditional”) way of doing things in our churches? Can we really say that one way of doing things is wrong? If I were to go to a concert, what would I expect? If the musician sat on the edge of the stage and just talked for two hours would I be disappointed? If I go to see a comedian and they take up an offering, sing a hymn, and preach from the Bible would I think it was innovative or would I be upset that it wasn’t what I expected? Isn’t it human nature to follow forms and systems and even traditions?

How did you get ready for your day this morning? Is that any different than asking how someone started off their week at church? The fact that we fall into predictable patterns

I don’t think we should let forms paralyze us or cause us to fall into complacency, but if NPCC uses the form that is satirized in this video, and it’s ‘working’ for them, maybe it’s okay for them to follow the pattern. Meanwhile, deviations – or better, variations – on the form could be healthy and keep people from settling into predictability and consumeristic complacency.

Anyway, the NPCC form probably isn’t for me and it does sadden me that our more “cutting edge” churches have adopted this form without question because the megachurch gurus do it and look at how many people they have! Hopefully, NPCC is taking the first step in breaking the mold and maybe that’s what this video is about. However, if they are simply nodding and winking at a practice they think is ineffective, then this video simply leaves me confused and seeking answers.

So, what are your thoughts about this video? Does your church follow this form? Does the video sting a little bit or have you gone the other way and are establishing forms and patterns that simply appeal to you? Can we just admit that we are all consumers to some extent and we search out a way of doing things that resonates with us? We will never completely rid ourselves of consumeristic tendencies, but are you striving to practice the presence of God as naturally and theologically and experientially as possible?

Documentary: Lord, Save Us From Your Followers

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Lord, Save Us From Your Followers [affiliate link] is the title of a new documentary that just came out on April 20th. My wife and I were able to watch the whole thing online the day it came out and I want to recommend this resource to you.

In this documentary, Dan Merchant asks the question, “Why is the gospel of love dividing America?” With interviews, quotes and clips from people like George Bush, Barack Obama, Bono, Al Franken, Tony Campolo and Rick Santorum, Merchant does a great job of presenting a balanced and reasonable look at the way Christians are engaging culture.

Merchant uses a variety of approaches to getting everyone’s perspective on the “culture wars” in America between various faith communities. He interviews Dr. Tony Campolo who is a noted evangelical scholar but he also interviews Sister Mary Timothy who is a cross-dressing “nun” in San Francisco. In addition to dozens of great interviews, Merchant also does some pretty interesting “man on the street” style interviews. He walks around in a big white jumpsuit with various bumper stickers espousing Christian or non-Christian values. His point is to show that when we reduce the conversation down to a bumper sticker we aren’t really engaging anyone with our beliefs and values.

This documentary has animations, clips from popular culture, and a quick moving pace that keeps you interested in the content. Overall, this is a well-researched and compelling documentary on how followers of Christ should be acting. Merchant even shows up at a gay pride event and opens up a confession booth with a hat tip to Don Miller of “Blue Like Jazz”. When he begins confessing the sins of Christianity (like how many hate rather than love our homosexual neighbors) to many of the gays and lesbians who enter the confession booth many of them are visibly moved and appreciate his willingness to take the first step in reconciliation between the two sides.

There aren’t too many people creating Christian films on par with what Hollywood can produce but this documentary is a refreshing change. The message is sound and compelling and the video and production are done with excellence. This documentary needs to be seen by churches and families as we consider how to show love to our neighbors.

Here’s the product description from Amazon:

Whether someone is Atheist, Agnostic, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, – or yes, even Christian – all can identify at times with the cry, “Lord, Save Us from Your Followers!” Fed up with the divisive bumper sticker mentality overtaking America, director (and follower) Dan Merchant donned his Bumper Sticker Man suit and set out on the daring search for meaningful dialogue and the true face of faith. Appearing in the film:Senator Al Franken, Dr. Tony Compolo, Former Senator Rick Santorum, Sister Mary Timothy, Paul Young, Bono, George W. Bush, and many, many more.

How are you engaging culture? Are you sharing the radical “Gospel of Love” to your neighbor or are you reducing the Gospel to a bumper sticker length message of condemnation?

Collision: Hitchens vs. Wilson

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I must be way behind the times, but I just found out about a documentary / debate called Collision. It’s a behind the scenes look at a series of debates held by prominent atheist Christopher Hitchens and an evangelical pastor and apologist Douglas Wilson.

The documentary explores the question: Is Christianity Good for the World?

Christopher Hitchens describes himself not as an atheist, but as anti-theist. He is probably most known for his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007).

Douglas Wilson, on the other hand, has written several books about marriage and childrearing, including his book Reforming Marriage (1995). However, he does a lot of speaking and teaching on worldview and apologetics.

Hitchens sets the stakes high for this “collision” between the two when he says, “One of us not just has to lose the argument but has to admit real moral defeat. I think it should be him.”

You can watch a 13 minute preview of Collision here.

There’s also a good review of the documentary by Chuck Colson on his blog.

You can buy the DVD here or rent it and watch it On Demand [affiliate links].

If you’ve seen this movie, care to let us know some of your thoughts? Or, if you’ve read anything by either of these guys, feel free to share some of your reactions to their work here!

(HT: Theonology)

Same-Sex Marriages Repealed in Maine

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maine-question-one-signs

Image from politicsdaily.com

Last night, Maine became the 31st out of 31 states to vote down same-sex marriage. On the other hand, six states have legislated (forced?) same-sex marriage on its constituents through the judicial branch or the legislative branch. Maine’s repeal brings the total number of states that have legalized same-sex marriage back down to five.

I also find it interesting that there wasn’t as much hype about this from grassroots organizations and churches as there was in California last year. It appears that this was a quiet victory for conservatism with not much need for controversial activism. I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t happy with some of the behavior by church leaders in California but here in Maine it seems that the churches in Maine were more civil and fair.

It’s also important to note that this is the first New England state that has had an opportunity to vote on same-sex marriage and it was turned down. Four of the six New England states allow same-sex marriage but only because of judges and politicians, never by a state-wide vote.

So, here are some questions for ChurchETHOS readers:

Are Americans living in the Dark Ages or the Enlightenment on this issue? Is same-sex marriage a civil right or not? Has the church responded appropriately to this social issue? How has the church conducted itself in Maine (respect, fairness, intolerance, etc.)? How SHOULD the church wrestle with the issue of same-sex marriage (personally, publicly, politically, pastorally, etc.)?

Please be respectful in your comments whether you are in favor of or oppose same-sex marriages. I will delete your comment if I find it offensive to people on either side of this issue. Therefore, if you want your voice to be heard find a way to do it with respect and grace.

Here are some news stories:

ABC

NYT

Boston Globe

Compassionate Moment

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I ran across this video recently from the Catalyst Conference and had some conflicting emotions as I watched it. As a communicator of God’s Word, I am intensely aware of the power of emotion and the importance of using it effectively (though I often make mistakes). Take a moment to watch this video (especially starting from 3:45) and get an impression and then rejoin me for thoughts after:

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3664118&w=425&h=350&fv=]

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve made mistakes as a communicator so when I watch a video like this and comment on it I do so for my own learning experience (and perhaps my readers can learn from this as well). Let me also say that I have full confidence in the integrity of Compassion International and for everyone on the stage during this video. However, I think some steps could’ve been taken to avoid an awkward situation. This post is sort of like a case study for communicator’s.

Jimmy and Mark’s story was very powerful. I can’t imagine a more compelling story and I know the Holy Spirit was at work in this moment. Compassion International is a reputable organization and I have lots of friends who have attended Catalyst conferences. But after Jimmy meets Mark, I thought the way the MC handled this situation was distracting and misguided. Again, coming purely from a communicator’s perspective, I think we need to learn from this moment and be aware of the power of emotion. This was a powerful moment but at the end it felt like a commercial (even though he said it wasn’t. I’m always extremely sensitive especially to the way we ask for money even for a worthy cause).

Now, I know that hundreds of children got sponsored through this event, but my concern with this video doesn’t have anything to do with poverty. In fact, it doesn’t have anything to do with motives. I’m sure the people who coordinated this moment were hoping to persuade as many people as possible to sponsor a child and that they were doing so for the right reasons.

I don’t want to attack anyone’s motives, but I do want to caution about methods. To me the moment after Jimmy and Mark met I was longing for someone to whisk them off stage and then lead the crowd in a time of praise for the One who made all this possible. Of course, no one doubted that it was the Spirit who was working in that room at that moment, but it seemed to go way, way too quickly to a plea for money.

So, viewing this as a case study, I invite your insights. Should this moment have been planned differently? Maybe with videos or with more tact? Should someone have prepped the MC to feel free to go off script if the moment was too powerful to proceed? What lessons do we learn as church leaders about the power of emotion and our need to carefully consider what may or may not happen in a moment such as this?

You can also continue the conversation over at the  Compassion Blog.

You can become a Compassion International sponsor here.

The SBC Name Change

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SBC_logo

My two previous posts urging the Southern Baptist Convention to change its name were wildly and strangely popular. I have to say this is hardly my most passionate topic. I just think the name is irrelevant and I’ve tried to make that point and let that do it, but since there is such a response to this discussion I wanted to give a few follow up thoughts.

Campus Crusade for Christ is considering a name change.

At their annual staff conference today Steve Sellers, one of the VP’s said, “We’re willing to change anything that hinders us from the goal.” They have even hired a firm to look into changing the name. Obviously, “crusade” is a word that hinders effectiveness because it bears the connotation of THE Crusades. Does the term “Southern” hinder effectiveness? Well, it’s irrelevant and it does bear negative connotations for those of us doing ministry outside of the Bible Belt.

- Thanks @spangoo for the info.

TD Banknorth changed its name to TD Bank.

Sure, this was primarily due to a merger between TD Banknorth and Commerce Bank and the legal battles that kept them from naming it TD Commerce Bank, but notice that now that TD Banknorth has banks as far south as Florida, “north” gets dropped. They dropped “commerce” because of legal issues, but they flat out dropped “north” because it wasn’t worth keeping. There was never a scenario where they were considering keeping “north” in the name. Why do we have “southern” in our name again?

KFC was once Kentucky Fried Chicken

But, they aren’t just in Kentucky and having “fried” in the name of a chicken franchise is almost as bad as having “caged” in the name. This example really breaks down, though, because there was a change in name but there wasn’t much of a change in product. The SBC needs both. Also, simply going to the initials still left open the fact that they were kentucky and fried. For awhile they tried to get people to think that meant “Kountry Fresh Chicken” but I don’t know if that’s the official meaning of “KFC” anymore.

Many other examples

There are many other examples of companies changing their brand. Some are successful. Some are not. The SBC really needs both a new name AND a resurgence, if you will, on Great Commission endeavors. Oh right, we’ve already begun the process of a “Great Commission Resurgence”, now we just need the new name (and logo) to go with it. We need to leave the fundamentalist camp and effectively bridge the gap between the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth and the life and times of 21st century western civ.

So, what are some other companies who successfully changed their names or logos? Why did they do it? Did it help them or hinder them? What lessons can be learned for the SBC?

Related Posts:  32 Reasons (and counting) Why Southern Baptists MUST Change Their Name ::  Giving the SBC a New Name

Social Acceptance: A Missional Metric

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tape-measure

This is a guest post from Jon Reid. Jon blogs regularly at Blog One Another. He often writes about the intersections between culture, technology, and Jesus-centered spirituality.

__________

What does your church measure, and why?

Evangelicals are fond of metrics. I don’t think the Church Growth Movement started this, but they took it to new levels, looking for ways to measure things that contribute to increased attendance. As a software engineer, I can certainly appreciate this. But I also know a couple of things from my engineering experience:

  • Whatever you measure will be deemed “important,” even if there are other things that are more important.
  • People will “game the system” to improve the numbers, even if it doesn’t have any true benefit.

Some people claim that this makes metrics worthless, but that is throwing out the baby with the bath water. We just need to keep the numbers in perspective. To twist the Master’s words a bit, “Metrics were made for people, not people for metrics.”

So I think metrics are useful. But what do churches generally measure? Worship service attendance, or “number of butts,” is still the a-number-one metric. Why? Partly because it’s so easy. (This certainly predates the Church Growth Movement. Do you remember the sign off to the side showing “Today’s hymns” and “Last week’s attendance”?) Make no mistake, there is nothing wrong with measuring how many people show up to an event. But if we focus on this number, it will drive us to be event-centric rather than relationship-centric.

Counting butts is an attractional metric.
If you want spiritual metrics, I recommend Natural Church Development.
But what about missional metrics?

Hugh Halter of Missio has offered twelve missional metrics they use which I recommend you check out. Today I want to define another missional metric:

Number of invitations from non-Christians

That is, instead of the number of times you’ve invited them to something, how many times have they invited you? Parties, concerts, movies, game nights, sporting events… This is a measure of your social acceptance by any group you are trying to reach. (Another variation to include is the number of times they’ve asked you for a personal favor.)

“Number of invitations” is not a sufficient metric to show well you are communicating the gospel. But by providing a measure of your social acceptance, it can reveal how you are doing at building friendships — which are the single greatest influence in people choosing to follow Jesus Christ. If you are focusing on a particular group and this number is low, try to determine what it means. (Don’t forget to pray for insight and divine appointments.)

So back to the opening question: What does your church measure, and why? Have metrics helped you live missionally, or distracted you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

[Photo image courtesy of Darren Hester]

Related Post: Checklist Christianity vs. Following Jesus ::  Subscribe