FAITHUL AND FRUITFUL

How do you measure a church's effectiveness?

A method often used by denominational execs and highly competitive pastors has been called Nickels and Noses How big was the offering and how many people showed up to worship? Church treasurers like the first measure and pastors get a lot of personal affirmation from the latter. Those numbers are a form of measure of effectiveness--the first can be used as a measure of the congregation's commitment to the church's vision. The second can be indicator of the extent to which the congregation is committed to an intentional time of worship.

But does the measurement end there? What happens if I am pastoring in a depressed area with a congregation whose members are out of work or unemployed? Is the amount in the plate a true indicator of the church's effectiveness? What happens if we are in church-saturated community or in a remote locale where there simply are not a lot of people? Is attendance (or the lack of increasing attendance numbers) a sign that the church is or is not doing the job God has called it to do?

A more important measure is faithfulness and fruitfulness. Are you faithful to the vision God has given you? (Do you even know what that vision is?) Are you efforts bearing fruit in transformed lives? (Or are you just maintaining the status quo in people who are spiritually "stuck."?)