The health debate: Not what you think
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I enjoy woodworking. It relaxes me. Its a pleasant way to get
the kind of instant feedback that you just don’t get from client work.
You know very quickly whether or not your efforts have paid off.
One Saturday I had accumulated all of the materials and plans
for a book case - much needed in this case because I also
enjoy books. The end of the day held promise - I would be
able to do away with the college expediency book case of
stacked cinder blocks and particle board.
I had a “helper” too, in the form of a 10 year old who was a
whiz at math and hyperkinetic to boot. A long as I kept him
occupied I made real progress. I wanted to give him
something meaningful to do so I broke out my extra tape
measure - the Craftsman kind that has a “switchblade”
button that will retract all 24 feet of tape in a couple of
milliseconds. It was a stroke of genius!
He was immediately busy. He measured everything.
By the time the day was half over, I knew the precise
size of everything. I knew that my carport was 22′8″
long by 11′2″ wide. I also knew the size of the berries
on the pyracantha bushes beside the carport. The
neighbor’s cat has a tail that is (when it is stretched
out, which she resists) 9 inches long. The oil spot
on the carport floor is 18″ wide at the widest point.
The shelves in my bookcase measured 36″ long.
It stood 74″ tall - when it was properly braced.
You see, I had been distracted by my helper’s frenetic
activity. The one thing I had not given his was the
plan for the bookcase that would guide him in
what he should measure. He was all activity -
but little accomplishment.
His "metrics" - all accurate - were not connected
to the mission.
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This experience reminds me of the way most churches measure their success. They talk about the "ABC's" - "Attendance, Buildings and Cash". I question whether these are actually meaningful or even accurate metrics for a church. These are the "cat's tail" of measurement. Sometimes they're even painful to measure! Bottom line: the length of the cat's tail is interesting but irrelevant to the health of the church - measured against its mission.
Numbers in attendance is a good metric if you're an event planner and your mission is simply to gather large crowds. Buildings are good - if you're in real estate. Cash is a good measure if you're a banker - or Bernie Madoff.....
But the metrics for a healthy church? They depend on what you perceive the mission of the church to be.
What do you think?
Attendance is a good measure of health, but with qualifiers. Does the growth come from christians from other churches or does it come from new christians who are just starting there new walk because of your church? If you have a dynamic church your growth will come from both of these.
I think the next letter would be B for baptism. This would be an indication of new believers your church is reaching. B also stands for balance so I refer you back to attendance.
Cash is a measure of the health of the church. If you are ministering effectively to people's needs they will give to support the work.
If you have cash what are you doing with it? One church I know of takes 10 percent of their building funds to do a large missions project. They were able during one building project to use the 10 percent to erect a multipurpose building for a missions outreach here in the states. During other building projects the 10 percent has gone overseas for large missions projects. The concept builds on their Judea, Samaria, and uttermost outreach of the church.
As I think about it the growth at this church is directly tied to the church's "mission" statement and corporate goals. That would lead to a discussion of church organization and leadership as a sign of health, but that takes a lot more time to expound on and I'm not certain I'd have enough characters.
("Characters" in the church, boy that could be fertile ground for one of your columns, and at this point I'm just thinking of those were related to!)
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Great illustration. I'm sure it will preach (as I bet you've discovered already). The topic reminds me of a seminar I attended years ago about the vital signs of a healthy church and how the statistics of a healthy church, e.g., your ABC's of attendance, building, and cash, may or may not be useful in determining church vitality and health. My favorite book on the subject is Mark Dever's "What is a Healthy Church."
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Have to agree with you. ABCs need not only to be mission focused, but the mission needs to be Scripturally focused not man focused. Over my BC & AC life experience I have seen many of the aforementioned. Many were focused on "growth spirals," "present cap is 80%", etc. Good reasons all, on the surface, such as "meeting the needs of our youth, Sunday school, or Sunday services,programs, etc. However, when the, "real mission" spiritual results o are measured over time, what is the disappointing cold reality? The percentage of spiritual giving (commonly called tithers) in the much lager numbers of members remains pretty much the same.If the "real mission" of the Body of Christ is spiritual growth, and I believe it is, these great increases in membership are apparently not accomplishing the mission.The financial policies involved in the support of these apparently unsuccessful efforts seem to provide a clue, in my opinion. When a church, whose conduct should be an example to each member, uses the world's method of debt to obtain these buildings it creates a striking dichotomy. The Bible clearly teaches God directed, Spirit motivated, free will giving. It also clearly teaches avoiding debt. Going into massive debt to obtain these facilities is to me contrary to Scripture. I realize most will chuckle and say "get real." However, if the mission is real spiritual growth, and it should be. It seems to me the Church must be consistent. When Churches call for sacrificial giving beyond their normal "tithing requirement" a real Christian ethical question is raised. If the tithe is a sacred as taught, as is the extra sacrificial giving to pay off the debt, a serious question of financial stewardship of these funds is raised. A real life project was advertised in a fund raising campaign, and throughout the construction, as an $18 M project. However, when we add in the Debt Service costs over the planned life of the debt elimination, the project will have an actual cost of between $35 & $40M. That's in excess of 50 cents of every dollar given ends up as if had been thrown out the window.
Yes, I know all the arguments: You can't raise that kind of cash before building." "We can't wait, our need is too immediate." It's a faith step, God will provide." Not sure He's obligated by any scripture I'm familiar with to provide money to eliminate un-scriptural debt.God is without limit as to what He can do. Nothing is impossible with God. What says if the needs are true needs and not "spiral growth" or some other man formula driven that God couldn't provide the $$ needed in plenty of time to meet the real need. My view is God's principles against indebtedness are timeless. There has to be a penalty for violating them. The root cause isn't God's inability to provide, but man's insistance on "his way" and his time schedule. Bottom line? Add "scriptural" to your valid "mission focused" point and I'm 100% behind you. Thanks for listening. You hit a nerve.
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Christ gave us the "Great Commission" to "Go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature." The goal was to win the lost. Today I wonder how churches would be rated if they used Christ's metric, and reported the number of "new" commitments to Christ each month, quarter and annually.
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Good point. Been reading a book on what some other parameters of measurement could be - to match the missional ecclesiology. I'm quite interested in what helps the church make disciples rather than build institutions. Reading: Reggie McNeal, Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church. What's a better scorecard?
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Our church is a little over 10 years old. we have over ten acres of land with a new building DEBT FREE 22.5 % of our income goes to missions plus what is designated.
When we first started without a pastor we set aside 10% and gave it to whatever missionary spoke to us. Now at the end of the year any missions money left is divided among our missionaries.
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