Measuring By Faith

During a recent church visit I introduced myself to the pastor and told him I would be writing an article about the worship service. When I asked about the average weekly attendance he said, “Oh…about 40.” The service that day had under 20 present, which is not unusual considering the unpredictability of summer church attendance. However, as I scanned the cozy auditorium I had to laugh — there were only 33 chairs set up for normal worship. All too often we in the church fall into the trap of using numbers as a measure of our ministry success. Paul said, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Ro 12:3 NIV).