Yesterday I left you with this question: 

If you and I go fishing together and you are catching fish but every once in a while I snag a fish from your holding tank and put them into mine am I an effective fisherman?

The answer is an emphatic ‘no’.  

Counting the fish in my tank after someone else did the work to catch them may make me seem successful at catching fish but it does not mean that I am a good fisherman.

Unfortunately, this is the present state of the American Church.  Pastors are celebrating ‘growth’ of their congregations that are actually filled with Christians who came to Christ in other years and other ministries.  A growing attendance is great but it doesn’t tell the tale of effectiveness.  Church hoppers and shoppers are giving a false sense of growth, effectiveness and overall leadership strength.  As one church looses membership, another gains.  One Pastor looks like a heel and the other the hero.  The question remains… are we being effective? 

If the goal is simply collecting Christians we need not look deeper than Sunday morning attendance.  If the goal however is building and sustaining healthy churches there is a far greater indicator available.

So how should we measure our church health?  Baptisms.  

Baptism in to the Evangelical Christian is a public profession of an inward change.  Peter preached “Repent and be Baptized” (Acts 2:38).  Jesus said “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

What is the point of the local church?  To make disciples.  

What is the biblical method to discern who is coming to faith?  Baptism.

What do we disciples do?  Obey Jesus… who told us to… make disciples.  So at the end of the day disciple-making is a huge indicator as to the health of our churches.

Let me illustrate this in Christian terms:  Chic-Fil-A

What is the point of Chic-Fil-A?  To sell chicken.

What would you think of a Chic-Fil-A owner/operator who kept celebrating how many ice-cream cones he/she sold while ignoring the fact that he/she wasn’t selling much chicken?  You’d shake this person silly wouldn’t you?  You’d say:

“Hey, you’re supposed to be selling great tasting chicken.  Your mission statement is all about chicken.  You promote chicken.  For goodness sake you have a huge cow painting billboards on the highway telling people to “eat more chikin”.  Who cares if you sold more waffle fries?… you’re not selling chicken!”

The Church is supposed to be making disciples.  

If we’re not making disciples we’re not making an eternal difference.

In the Christian church we tend to ‘celebrate’ wins that aren’t really wins.  Like the Chic-Fil-A operator who celebrates waffle fries, we invent new ways to be happy even though we are not actually fulfilling the mission of Jesus.  We have invented entire divisions of denominational organizations designed to cater to “Christians” who are not making disciples.  Visit your local Christian bookstore.  Ask yourself how much of what is on the shelves is designed for the brand new believer in Christ.  Next to nothing.  I have a hard time with that.

What are our churches producing if the people we label ‘disciples’ are not themselves actually making new disciples?

How can a church with a dry-rotted baptistry claim to be healthy?

I know, some people would say “We are healthy because our people are in small groups and/or ministry teams.” or “Have you seen the stats of our 101, 201,301, 401 classes?”   Boo.

Everything your church does should ultimately lead to making disciples.

If your small groups are teaching people to follow the Jesus who commanded his disciples to go and make disciples… the result of your small groups will be…?  You got it… new disciples.

How do you quantify effectiveness in making new disciples vs. swapping sheep?  Baptisms.

At the end of the day we need to be focused on counting what counts. If the goal of the church is to advance the Kingdom of Jesus then we need to make new disciples.

The fully developed disciple reproduces himself/herself in the life of a third-spiritual generation.  Baptisms.  

The successful small group leads people toward becoming a fully developed reproducing disciple.  Baptisms.

The successful ministry team is one that is helpful in advancing the churches mission to make disciples. Baptisms.

The useful counseling session, bible study, sermon series… all add up to fully-devoted disciples who reproduce themselves in a third spiritual generation which will ultimately reveal itself in …?  You got it… Baptisms.  

Count what counts.  If our church gets bogged down or clogged up it will show in the fact that we’re not making new disciples.  I don’t know about you but I believe the local church has a far greater mission than that of any social club or civic group.  Our great commission is to point people to Jesus.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. – Jesus – Matthew 28:19-20

Today I read a post by Shawn Lovejoy which is actually an excerpt from his book ‘The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea To Pastors”.  I purchased his book on Kindle this morning and got about 20% through before my first meeting of the day.  Shawn’s post ‘Who Are We Reaching’ hits on a theme from a conversation I brought up to a ministry friend just yesterday.

My friend is in a denominational role which requires him to interface with many churches.  During the course of our conversation we got into a discussion about how resources are allocated, the role of overhead and determining effectiveness of ministries:  established as well as church plants.

Like Shawn, I believe we measure the wrong things.  

Attendance:

Attendance is an indicator but not a valid measurement of health.  Healthy things grow but I am most concerned with HOW things grow before I determine whether or not they are ‘healthy’.

So what do I look for?  Baptisms.

Status Quo:

It’s weird but I’ve noticed that people like to keep their jobs even if it means justifying a lack of productivity.  Most people do not want to admit when they are failing.

What DO you do if you’re failing?  

a.  Lie about your metrics.

b.  Change the metrics.

c.  Pretend metrics aren’t important.

d.  Measure metrics that do not matter.

e.  Admit it & fix it.

Instead of admitting that churches aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing, we’ve developed entire systems around justifying everything and everyone but I honestly believe most of us are drastically missing the mark.  Jesus told us to make disciples.  To me it becomes a simple question:  Are we?

In our denomination as in yours, we talk a lot about church ‘growth’.  When we plant churches we’re looking to see quick success so we can feel good about the investment made.  It is reasonable to quantify resources to effectiveness… I just believe we have our eyes focused on the wrong ball.

A Sunday morning attendance measurement doesn’t make sense to me.

If you and I go fishing together and you are catching fish but every once in a while I snag a fish from your holding tank and put them into mine am I an effective fisherman?  

To be continued…  check out Part 2

There is nothing more amazing than the local church when it is firing on all cylinders.  

This Sunday we began a series based around the themes from the book “{w}hole” by Lisa Whittle.  The book is amazing and I highly recommend you get your own copy.  If you are a Pastor or leader in your church I highly recommend you consider teaching a month on these concepts.

After the service as I spoke with various people I noticed a woman patiently waiting to speak with me.  I ended the conversation I was in and said hello.  What happened next rocked my world.  

She began to share that she has never gone to church because she’s been extremely skeptical of Christians and religion.  She detailed to me a lifetime of abuse she has endured.  One of the people in her life that hurt her trusted Christ two years ago and experienced a “radical transformation”.  She said that this so-called transformation only hardened her own heart toward God as she believed this person was faking this life change.  A little while later she had a child.  The experience of becoming a parent got her thinking about “What if there really is a God who really is a father in heaven?”  Still she resisted for another year and a half.  Her husband had even visited Captivate a year ago and she refused to attend.

Fast forward to this past Sunday…she had rejected many invitations to church but for some reason she felt that this Sunday was the day.

In tears she detailed for me how she was treated with honor by our VIP team from the parking lot to her seat.  She said that she felt at peace with leaving her child in the care of our kids teams.  She loved that we were so focused on Christ and down to earth with one another.  She didn’t notice any pretense or judgement from our people.  She felt genuinely loved by our people and she said that she kept up with the entire message and realized that she was caught up in her own ‘role’ issues.  She trusted Christ as Savior this Sunday!

The story got better.

By this time my new friend is in tears and apologizing for blabbering.  I assured her that I was gaining more than she knew from her story.  She went on to say that she went up to our connection table to inquire about an upcoming event with Lisa Whittle.  She informed our VIP team member in charge that she couldn’t afford the ticket and wanted to see if her name could be put on a list.  During the service I made the announcement: “If you can’t afford it, please let us know.  We will find a way to get you in.”  I also announced “If you want to help others to go, buy tickets for those who can’t afford one.”  Well, she couldn’t afford one and while she was explaining this to our connections person, a woman behind her in line spoke up and said “I’ll buy your ticket for you.”  

Again this woman broke down as she recounted this story!  She told me “I have never felt loved like this.”  

Later when I found out who bought her the ticket I went to thank them for being Jesus to her.  The lady who bought the ticket said “I just felt compelled to help.”  I shared a small part of the woman’s story and this Good Samaritan said “I had no idea… I thought she was a regular attendee who I didn’t know.”  We were both blessed in that moment that God had worked so mightily for this woman.

The reality is that this woman’s life was rocked by Jesus this Sunday.  She met Christ, she was loved by Christ’s people and she was blessed by a great act of love from a complete stranger. 

I’m so excited that Captivate Church exists for people like this woman.  I’m so excited to know that she now has a very different picture of what the local church can be.  I’m excited that she will get to meet and hear Lisa Whittle at the beginning of next month and be surrounded by a room full of Christian women who are all pursuing Jesus and filling their holes together.

This type of story completely humbles me and makes me eternally thankful for Christ and HIS local church called Captivate!

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We have a few tickets left for our Sunday event, March 4, 2012,  with Barna Books author and Proverbs 31 ministry coordinator, Lisa Whittle.  If you’d like to check out this exclusive event and consider joining us, check it out here: http://captivatechurch.com/#/events/lisa-whittle