Numbers are meaningless

I am 14,000 days old today.  But no one counts their age this way, instead most of us click off the annual occurrence of the day of the month we were born based on the Gregorian calendar.  In the Gregorian system my ‘birthday’ is always in half term in October, but celebrating every 500 days enables celebrations at different points through the seasons.

I started thinking about all the things we apply what is loosely called ‘metrics’ to, and considered that some of them are arbitrary at best and unhelpful at worst and can significantly colour how we measure success.

For instance, we count people in attendance on Sunday’s as if physical presence was a measure of growth. What we’re actually counting there is number of seats needed + squarefootage + cups, chairs, leaflets etc required for family worship and for teaching activities in our facility.  Numerical growth may be indicated by the number of chairs required for Sunday meetings, but there’s a big difference between those attending and those ‘added’, and an even bigger difference between those added and those growing.

Growth is difficult to measure by numbers.  As a child each summer in my grandparents house I would stand against a wall and have my height marked off.  I remember that for the early years of life I was always some 4 to 6 inches (meaningless to those of a metric persuasion) behind my sister who was 393 days older than me. One year though, my growth had accelerated and I was a good 4 inches ahead of her. Tremendous growth in a calendar year.  Was I now older than her as well as taller?  No I was still 393 days younger.  Height was no measurement for maturity.

In the same way, increase in bums on seats is no measure for maturity of congregation. Neither is age of congregation, years saved, areas of service engaged in, responsibilities held, people in your growth/cell/small/connect/home group.   All of these may be ‘indications’ that enable an assessment against ‘is growth happening’, but are not measures of growth.  For instance, if someone has been ‘saved’ for 30 years, I might expect that they are well accustomed to the teachings of Christ and are able to apply his teachings for themselves and for others in what ever situations they find themselves, that they have learnt to hear the voice of God in the stillness and be prophetic, prayer warriors with many a story of God’s provision to underpin their faith and stir faith in others?  There are definitely many people for who this description fits to a T, but there are many others where it doesn’t so it’s not a reliable metric. Similar considerations can be made with nearly every metric.

The problem then with counting the things that are easy to count is that I can miss the tangible growth when it happens.  I don’t always see that Barry prayed with someone for the first time, or that Joanne took time to help someone get to hospital, or that Craig spent an hour helping someone understand something from scripture or that Gary stood with someone in their situation. Moreover, I’m not always privy to what is done in secret, so even if I was super observant I might miss growth as it happens.

Lord forgive me when I look but don’t see. When the tangible metrics cloud what’s really happening in the hearts and minds of those I stand shoulder to shoulder with.  Keep me focussed on growing with you, applying what is learnt in practical ways to love people and love You.