End of January 6th 2016: stats and facts – Church Set Free …
274 views, 98 new visitors, 14 sermons, 54 conversations recorded (and that excludes “social media” and the oddly massive numbers counted there).
Struck me today how we measure ministry. How many this and how many that? Are the numbers going up or not? How do we reach more? How do we share the good news? How and how and how and how again!
In six days a lot has happened. One week. One thin slice of this new year. Should the numbers be higher? Are these numbers puny? How are we counting the hits? Can you verify these numbers? How do we measure this ministry?
In the two years I have been writing “sermons” there are a handful of people who have told me they have been changed by those words. Just as I have been changed by your words.
And each small change I absorb changes something a lot bigger. Each small turn of one small cog turns a cog so much bigger. And these cogs change something massive. They change me. And that could be you.
So I think that measuring ministry forgets something massive. It misses the conversation between me and my God.
274 views, 98 new visitors, 14 sermons, 54 conversations recorded.
Is just the “blog count”.
That is not “my count” of my conversations with my God and others and our connecting God, nor the count of “sermons” shared with others and our God, and none of that can ever capture my daily living and loving – and the infinitesimal changes in me – day after day after day –
I believe one person changes. And that changes everything. Relationship changes. And I change.
I want to keep changing and be changed by our God in you and my God in me and leave the measuring to Him.
(and I wonder – does He call even call this stuff “a ministry”?)
Have a wonderful 7th of January!
Church Set Free 
Hi Paul! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on evangelization 🙂 I agree with you that it’s not how many people we reach that matters, for the work is not ours but God’s.
“How do we share the good news?” you asked in your post. I’ve recently come across a fantastic presentation by Bishop Robert Barron on this very topic. I think you might enjoy it, I certainly did!
Here is the link to the podcast: https://soundcloud.com/iccarchive/robert-barron (and if you wanted the notes that I transcribed from this podcast here is the link to that: http://barchenkecil.tumblr.com/post/135285931538/1-we-new-evangelists-should-lead-with-the)
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Hiya B – and thank you for your comments and links. I tried the podcast as I was working here – but am not great at multi-tasking when listening to words! Gotta agree with “lead with the beautiful”.
And just as I am not sure what our Lord would make of “ministry” as a label, nor do I know what He would make of “evangelization” or even new evangelists (I am not a “label fan”). Someone in an other post/comment highlighted how the Lord “meets us each where we are” – each of us – today – right now.
It is that love which blows me away every time. And the relationship He desires with each of us. Not sure how you package that as a replicable way of doing things. 🙂
I have ticked the podcast away to listen properly (and will add a comment here when I have). I love the sharing!! Thank you!
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Hi Paul! What I love about our online Christian community is how generously people share resources with one another 🙂
I also tried to multitask while listening to that podcast and couldn’t manage it. So I had to give all my attention to get the most out of it.
The “New evangelization” is a term coined by Pope St. John Paul II. Rather than a label, it proposes to Catholics a new approach to evengalization. This is a good video in which Dr. Scott Hahn answers the question “What is the New Evangelization?”: http://www.catholic.com/video/what-is-the-new-evangelization.
“Someone in an other post/comment highlighted how the Lord “meets us each where we are” – each of us – today – right now.” I think I read this too on this site! The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote a wonderful piece on this topic too 🙂 Here is the link if you want to check it out: http://www.catholicgentleman.net/2015/10/fultonfridays-sanctifying-the-present-moment/
“It is that love which blows me away every time. And the relationship He desires with each of us. Not sure how you package that as a replicable way of doing things.” I absolutely agree
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“I believe one person changes. And that changes everything. Relationship changes. And I change.” Ripples in the pond. One pebble at a time.
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Pebbles and ponds and ripples – one of my favourite places to be! Thank you Susan ((hugs))
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No we call it ministry. We have fancy words for everything. I call it relationship, real relationship. They are not posts they are invitations. They are words of love. They are connections. Think of all the precious eyes that read this screen.
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Dear Mary – thank you. I think He calls it “Love me you and all.” Which is a lot of love! And not a lot else. 🙂
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I think the only real way to measure any ministry/act of service is like you stated; did something change in me and/or in another? Was it a positive change in our relationship with our Heavenly Father, through His Son Christ Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit, for isn’t that really the only change that has eternal ramifications?
I was always fascinated as a young man sitting in church and seeing the board that was usually off to the side of the pulpit that had the number of people who attended the previous week, how many attended Sunday School, how much was in the offering and so on and so forth. Even today some “ministries” seem to qualify themselves by how big their congregation or overall membership is. The sad thing is, there have been a lot of charismatic “false prophets” in the past and they have had major quantity but changed relationships with our Heavenly Father in a positive way? Only the Father Himself knows that!
God bless Brother!
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Something you said to me some time ago came back this week. I was chatting to our minister late one night and talking about my calling to a local preacher and how I was struggling with the “church theory and reality” – and mentioned a few numbers from the past two years on my blog. His reaction was incredulity! A WOW kind of reaction.
Brought home to me again – and I thank you for this – how we all get entrapped so easily in “the way” of seeing things we are familiar with – and yet His way creeps up unannounced and we suddenly go “WOW! how does that work?”
I think the loveliest feedback is an individual “that drew me closer to my God” – that (each of the very few times it has happened) fills me up – humbling and beautiful. And for the many, many, many times others have drawn me closer to my God, that to me is even more WOW!
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