“When you cannot measure what matters, you end up making matter what you measure.”

I can’t recall now who I heard say this.

But imagine applying that statement to church life and ministry.

What does matter about church life and ministry? How can we measure church life and ministry?

Churches work with different kinds of numbers. Attendance numbers. Baptism numbers. Offering numbers.

What do such measurables tell us? is it possible to misunderstand their significance?

Is it possible that focusing too much or in the wrong way on those numbers can keep us from focusing on what really matters?

Is wanting something to measure the result of wanting control?

Not that those numbers aren’t important at all. But when they start decreasing, what does that tell us? And how do we address that decline?

If the numbers are going up, does that automatically mean God is at work and that we’re doing church right?

Numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Not everything of value can be measured. Especially things of spiritual value.