Do you ever go out and do things without thinking about it first?  If this is a consistent way of life, you’ll likely find yourself lost or with no progress after awhile.

Measurement is critical if you want to define success or failure in any circumstance.

So what does your own measuring stick look like?

How do you define and measure the successes of your ministry?

Without being explicit in your objectives and goals, you can easily go into the slippery opportunistic mode for what you are doing with your ministry.  This is when you fall victim to whatever fire needs to be put out or whichever “great deal” or “great opportunity” comes across your way.  Or better yet, being stuck in opportunistic mode keeps you constantly behind the 8-ball or become complacent when you are able to do just enough to keep the status-quo.

The same goes for the mission of a church.  Without strategic vision and a clear set of objectives to measure against, it is easy for a ministry to loose focus and loose ground.

The Wall Street Journal featured a piece, “When the Pastor Says It’s ‘A Time to Sow‘” which touched upon just one factor of measurement worthy of consideration for any church.  Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC takes a suprisingly unique way to measure their own success.Dr. Keller doesn’t just want to grow Redeemer in Manhattan, he wants the church to plant new churches [listen to mp3 audio: Dr. Keller on church planting].  And  Redeemer has done a great job, planting over 100 new churches in recent years.

But the deeper measurement of a “healthy” church by Dr. Keller’s standards goes further.  Redeemer want to plant churches that are healthy enough to plant new churches themselves.

Surprisingly simplistic.  But it is also surprisingly foreign in concept to many mainline denominational churches as the Wall Street Journal article points out:

One example shows a Rev. John Yates of The Fall Church in VA who “…began thinking about planting churches 20 years ago. But the bishop of Virginia ‘wouldn’t allow us to discuss it…” for 20 years!

Only after “leaving the Episcopal denomination (while remaining in the Anglican Communion) has given Mr. Yates the freedom to plant churches.”

The result?  The church is now in the midst of planting their 5th new church plant in Fairfax County, VA.

Under the old system, sharing the Good News and making new disciples (vs. continuing to serve just the old ones already there) clearly wasn’t one of the explicit objectives nor measures of success for the old mainline denomination in Virginia.  Their measuring stick seems very limited and restricting, quite honestly.

Bless Rev. Yates for taking on Dr. Keller’s “unique” measuring stick that takes church planting a part of mission field duties for the Church!

Is it time you took a good look at the current measuring stick you use in your own ministry?  Is it time to get a new one?