Simple. Clean. Efficient.
How can we evaluate our lives and our churches? We should not judge ourselves by the questions we are so often asked.
"How many in Sunday School?"
"How many baptisms?"
"How many in worship?"
"Have you built new buildings?"
"How many deacons have you ordained?"
The answers to these questions are for measuring sticks only. We ask people these questions because we do not care to take the time to ask better ones. We can, in our own form of religious piety, measure our superiority and walk away prideful or our inferiority and run away before the tables are turned. These answers might be indicators of trends but not of the totality of church health. Jesus said in John 15
1 "I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
5 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.
What if a church was going through a pruning so that God could burst forth with something new and fresh? The church and leadership would be viewed as failing because the "answers" are not what others think they should be.
What questions could we ask? What rods of evaluation could we use?
Some of the comments being left yearn for an answer in this arena of life. I have a group going through masterlife right now and we came up with some interesting thoughts on the subject. When it comes to victory how do we know? Certainly salvation is a victorious moment! Obviously baptism is victorious moment as a step of obedience!
Now what? Where is the next moment of victory? Heaven? WOW! That feels like a long time to wait! God wants us to have victory in our present. When churches and leadership grasp that relational faith lives among the individual then we can begin to uncover new forms of evaluation.
- How many children do you have that enter youth knowing salvation and baptism?
- How many children do you have that enter youth knowing what there life purpose is?
- How many youth graduate knowing their purpose and seek colleges and majors that extend their potential in fulfilling that purpose?
- How many adults are impacting their home and daily work out of the purpose God has for them?
These numbers are deeper in meaning. These are questions that reflect progress and victory. We must look to the individual. The parts are more important than the whole. Traditional evaluations look to the whole. Post-Modern, and Biblical, evaluations are designed to investigate the parts.
Posts
Aaron, I would like to hear your thoughts regarding the evaluative questions that I posed in my response on August 6.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we institutionalized a movement never intended for buildings. Paul went from house to house. The people met in homes. In fact, today in China one of the greatest movements in Christian history is happening without formalized buildings for all to see.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes the difference?
They are concerned about the individual's progress more than the corporate progress. It is my belief that the church is to be the place where we equip and encourage the child of God to live out his/her faith at home and in the daily work. If this be true, then the current evaluative measures are faulty and give no legitimate report.
One man I know takes a beating from the religious folk because he is not at Sunday nights and Wednesday nights like a good Christian should. What is he doing? Everyday he is in the school giving life lessons and modeling relational faith. He shares Christ and fervently prays for their lives. Which one is being what God wants?
The one who attends and never shares or the one who shares and attends less?
I say the one living out faith outside of the walls has figured out where that "abundant life" is truly found.
So what should we evaluate?
We should evaluate individual progress.
Do they know their life message?
How integrated is God into their lives?
Is there home a platform for ministry?
Are they impacting their workplace and recreation moments?
Do not get me wrong. Church is important because God created the church. What we have done with it is twisted. Church is intended to be a place where we celebrate God and His majesty. We are also called to equip the saints to do the work of God [outside the walls]. This equipping comes in the form of education, enlistment, and encouragement.
If we want to evaluate numbers inside the church start looking at the numbers that are important. Salvations and Baptisms are important without question, but that is the beginning and not the end. We should include that which is mentioned in the blog as well.
Just some thoughts...wow it is late!
I agree that the type of questions we ask create a specific frame of reference. It seems to me that in order for individuals to take the path of relational faith and stay focused on that path, the path must be simple and defined. For instance, as a starting point, what about developing one evaluative question for each one of the following areas: studying the Word, prayer life, sharing faith, developing my community of relationships, serving Christ/others? 5 questions for 5 areas. Of course, an additional thought is to create a vision statement that would serve as direction for that path.
ReplyDeleteI have long followed the rule not to re-invent the wheel simply tweak it!
ReplyDeleteI believe that the bulk of the Masterlife material is good at leading people down a a proper path:
Discplines [book 1]
Decisions [book 2]
Direction [book 3]
Development [book 4]
I am profoundly enjoying going through this and leading others through this also. Bear in mind that it must be taught from this relational concept rather than the religious.
The difference?
The religious would teach Masterlife weekly with the tick boxes in mind and verifiable evidences that the verses were memorized correctly. We would focus on making sure everything got done.
The relational teaches Masterlife weekly with development in mind. What do the verses have to do with life on Tuesday mornings and Friday evenings? We seek to investigate application to life more than accurately doing the work. The relational shows people the "Why?" of daily readings more than simply telling them to do so.
The religious rule with authority and don't like the questions of purpose for daily readings.
The relational savor in these questions because we grapple with reality and discipline. We give reasons why to read. The Bible has the answers to our questions, the solutions to our problems and the directions for our decisions.
This gives purpose and meaning to the discipline. The older generations can handle the duty card but the younger ones need meaning. God meets everyone where they have a need.
Why should we do any different?
Great perspective using MasterLife! Aaron, I think that you are right on target with the relational perspective and the absolute necessity of bringing it to the forefront. I am convinced that the religious perspective started out with the right reasons and motivations, but somewhere along the way the real purpose of the perspective was lost and what we need to do now is to define our purpose, priorities, and process from a relational context. It is so easy for even the most well-intentioned Christian to get off track. That is why these questions are so important.
ReplyDeletehey aaron, it's aaron. we connected via email a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteOne way to measure success = are the ministries/programs of the church focused on the Great Commission?
Example: Event “A” has 1000 people attending, but it’s not focused on disciple-making and/or does not bring anyone into the disciple-making process. Event “B” has 100 people attending, but is focused on disciple-making and/or brings 20people into the disciple-making process. Which event is more successful?
I have really enjoyed reading the give and take regarding evaluative questions. It appears that what we may need to create is questions that are more qualitative than quantitative. Can the Christian life be defined by numbers or checklists? I think not. And that may be where we lost focus.
ReplyDeleteInstead of recording numbers (such as baptisms, weekly attendance), maybe we should be more concerned with the depth of spiritual life in the church body. Counting the number of indidiuals attending a worship service is passive. Counting the number of indivudals serving in some capacity seems more active.
Have you all thought about a Church in which every single one is committed and involved in developing the Fruit of the Spirit in the deepest level possible?
ReplyDeleteThat church would have the best individuals and an amazing group for brotherhood and worship. Isn't that success from God's point of view????
It could be that part of the problem of our evaluations stem from the fact that they are so front-loaded. We tend to focus on professions, baptisms and church roll additions. (I am not advocating that professions, baptisms, and additions are a bad thing - but they are not the only thing). We record how many come in the door - Recruitment. But how do we do when it comes to keeping them by turning them into productive disciples - Retention. Maybe we need to put some methods into place to evaluate and increase our ability to retain additions. How are we doing when it comes to developing maturity in Christ? How many are we losing out the back door and how can we keep people from falling through the cracks?
ReplyDelete