Comments for Accurate numbers count at http://pres-outlook.net , comment 1 to 1 out of 1 comments http://pres-outlook.net Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:08:11 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://pres-outlook.net/opinion/guest-commentary/5523.html#comment-3490 I know something about the current buzz word, metrics,used to sound more up-to-date than people who learned the old word, statistics. I have 2 degrees from MIT, 2 from Union Theological Seminary (Va.), and a doctorate from Princeton where my doctoral dissertation was full of 'metrics' that measured 2 different congregations' reactions to the same series of sermons. I have served as stated clerk of 3 different presbyteries in which I consolidated the annual 'metrics' (statistical) reports of the churches and forwarded them to the GA. I have served as Associate Pastor for Administration in two of the financially richest congregations in the country as well as solo pastorates in other congregations. The church I now serve has literally more than ten times the Sunday attendance it had 13 months ago when it was about to close, and its membership grows every month. In my first pastorate, a rural 3-church field, membership doubled in 4 years. Yes, I know something about metrics. Yes, metrics are important in certain applications, such as alloting spaces, buying hymnals, knowing how many bulletins to print, planning locations and sizes of buildings, determining the size of staffs, etc. But metrics do not measure or determine the quality, success or failure of a ministry. John records that in the middle of Jesus' public career, 'When many of his disciples heard [what Jesus taught], they said, 'This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?' ... Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him' (John 6:60-66). The metrics would say he had failed, just as the metrics said the church I now serve should have closed a year ago when its typical Sunday morning attendance was 7, including 3 visitors. Sell its property and put the money into other mission work where it can have metrical success, was the advice. Today this church is expected to be the cover story for October's Presbyterians Today, was the front page feature story in Easter Sunday's Charlotte Observer, and was a feature story on local Channel 14 TV. What made the difference? Surely not a study of metrics. Rather, we came to realize in the most practical of ways that all the members had done to save the church had failed for many years, humanly speaking, and all I had done for 4 years as stated supply had failed, humanly speaking. Only God could save it, and we were the people there whom God could use. Of our 3 regular visitors a year ago, 2 were an interracial couple who had visited many churches in our area, and ours was the only one in which every single person warmly welcomed them. Then their friends came, and the friends of their friends, whether African-American, caucasian, gay, straight, manual laborer, rich attorney, or whatever. Most had become disillusioned with the churches where they were members at least 2 years before and had been visiting other churches all that time or not going to church at all. Now they found a church that genuinely, not just formally, welcomed all kinds of people (Luke 15;1-2, 11-32) and put them to work in Christian service. Now, with a membership of just under 100, including a large number of elderly shut-ins from the older congregation, the church participates in 4 different programs for the homeless plus Habitat for Humanity, 2 programs for feeding the hungry, 1 program for addressing structural causes of poverty and discrimination, houses an AA group, and is seeking other ways to serve God. Naturally, we have an eclectic worship service, a blend of traditional Presbyterian hymns with African American gospel and spirituals. The metrics I just quoted are immaterial, because they're not the objective and they're not used to measure success. When visitors come, and we have first-time visitors every Sunday, numbers are not quoted, and they're not impressed by numbers. They come back because they receive a much warmer welcome than a polite handshake, because the excitement of the church life permeates the worship, because the blending of styles of worship draws them into worship in ways they had not expected, because a period of joys and concerns before the prayers of the people involves them in the lives of other people, and because announcements by different people involved in the various service activities--not usually formal Minutes for Mission--draws them into participation, too. I'm reacting against the overuse of metrics in the life of the church. They indicate, when accurately compiled and accurately interpreted, what has already happened and make projections into the future based on the past. Extrapolation is always risky. We need rear view mirrors on our cars, and we need them in churches, but they don't keep the cars on the road, and they are absolutely useless in telling us which branch in the road to take. God is not limited by metrics. God's purposes are not determined by metrics. God's will is not determined by metrics. The metrics of my current church a year ago said, Close it. The metrics of the disciples in the upper room would have never prepared them for Pentecost. - Charles MacDonald Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:00:00 +0100