Barnabas File

A pastor friend recently noted that he had stopped submitting his church’s annual report to the denomination.  He said, “ {They want] metrics that no longer matter and are irrelevant. [The report] doesn’t ask how many Muslims have become Christians, number of internationals reached, Facebook or YouTube views, website hits.”  All of these are important metrics in his context and in a post-COVID (?) world but the denomination is not asking about those things.   We all know the measures requested in these reports:  number of Baptisms, Sunday school attendance, worship attendance, resident members, etc.  So, do you include those attending services online in worship attendance?  What about the couple who now live in another state but are still members of the congregation and continue to send their tithes to the church? What are the measures of a successful ministry to the unhoused?   It is not that metrics—the things we measure—are ...

You can always count on your students to bring you back down to earth!     In the seminary class I teach on Missional Imagination, we challenge students “to think, imagine, innovate, and lead in ways that foster ministry startups and nurture established ministries that are missional in nature.”     At least that is what the course description says.     Another way of describing our goal is helping students to reimagine Christian ministry as part of the   missio Dei --the mission God given to the people of God and empowered by the Holy Spirit.     Of course, it takes a whole semester to unpack this concept, but eventually someone will ask a question or write a paper that includes a statement like this:  “Although missional ministry is often slow and may not have quantifiable results, the truth of the matter is those who are funding the ministry will always want to have a visible and measurable outcome as proof that their dolla...

Whether we like it or not, someone is bound to ask the question: “How big is your church?”   One might avoid the question by responding with questions such as, “What do you mean by ‘big’?”   “Do you mean how many resident members or regular Sunday morning attendance?”   “Do you mean square footage?” While well meaning, the initial question can be translated, “Is your church successful?”  The question is rooted in our ingrained desire to measure success or progress.  Numbers indicate whether a church is growing or declining.  For some, numbers indicate the vitality of the congregation.  Of course, numbers can also apply to dollars, member involvement in missions and ministry, and whether the church is able to support its staff, pay its bills, and keep the roof fixed. Since numbers define what we do, perhaps the best thing to do is to come up with our own numbers or metrics to measure where we are on the journey.  In his book, ...