How Do We Measure God's Blessing?
During a break at a seminar at a high-powered church, I started chatting with the director of a care ministry associated with the church. I worked in the inner city for ten years, teaching and then starting a multi-racial Christian school, so I have a cultivated love for the people in the city.
When I asked the director about this care ministry, the director said they'd grown from x-million to y-million over the last few years, and how many thousands of hours had been donated. I pressed further, but continued to hear numbers, not love. When I think about this conversation, I recall an earlier version of myself in the 1980s that dreamed of running a million dollar mission. My motives weren't all bad, but that million dollar number was a "worship center," a source of life for me. It eventually left me empty, as all idols do. My experience with that emptiness was so profoundly negative that I was actually pleased when seeJesus income fell short of $1 million this year, ending June 30!
Numbers are not meaningless. They give you a sense of what is going on. We've provided multiple numbers for you in this report to give you a sense of God's blessing on our work. When I talk to a pastor, especially in a young church plant, I'm eager to hear how many are attending. I want them to do well, to succeed, to get his salary paid. But when numbers become our primary "metric" (a way of measuring your success), then we're in danger of creating an "alternative center of life"—an idol.
In the business world, using total income as a metric is actually a bit strange, almost meaningless. Businesses measure profit which in turn a ects the overall value of the company. at's why Wall Street analysts say "buy" with a company that sells an unprofitable division. The company is getting smaller, reducing its total revenue, but increasing its profit and thus its value.
But money or total size is often the primary metric in the world of missions or church. Many missions tell their donors
how many staff they have as in "we grew from 75 to 100 staff this year." That is exciting, but it doesn't tell us anything. What did that mission produce?
Some 35 years ago, I was riveted by Gene Getz's book, The Measure of a Church, where he studied Paul's metrics for the churches he planted. Paul measures faith and love. So Paul tells the Thessalonians that he has "heard of their faith and their love." That's Paul's bottom line. Are they growing in their union with Christ? Are they growing in their love for Jesus? Are they growing in their love for one another? Faith and love are almost impossible to quantify, but I pray for them, think about them, and work for them incessantly.
Everything we do at seeJesus is focused on creating faith and love in the church. Our books, seminars, and courses are "jars of clay" that carry faith and love into the church.
Here's an example of a metric that has encouraged us. If you click on Amazon reviews of A Praying Life, you'll see lots of
customer reviews, but the number doesn't tell you what is going on. But if you dig into the reviews, you see multiple signs of faith growing. Here are some recent examples:
• "This book has helped me to break prayer out of the formulaic ritual and become more natural and life-giving."
• "Best contribution...to the discussion on prayer is his treatment of the spirit of cynicism and how it permeates our life, killing our faith to pray. This section alone has changed our family's spiritual walk in many areas, giving us the mental and spiritual tools (a renewed mind) to fight the good fight."
• "I feel as if scales have been removed from my eyes. I loved the message in this book, especially on cynicism. It has really helped me change my attitude and vision."
Our staff and trainers see the same thing on the front lines when they lead our seminars. Twenty-five years ago, God laid it on my heart to build an ark of faith and love that would preserve and protect the church in the coming evil age. So this Annual Report is our "ark update!"
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