Common – Yet Harmful and Unbiblical – Method for Evaluating Ministries

Pastor Brian Croft continues to share solid gold nuggets of pastoral wisdom over at Practical Shepherding. Don’t miss today’s post:

As always, he is specifically speaking to pastors, but I can’t help but think of how his insights apply to every Christian ministry. Yes, we laypeople will not be called to give an account for the souls of people because we do not hold ecclesiastical authority over them. But still, we have duties to our leaders and duties to our fellow church members. God calls us to pray for, bless, serve, encourage, bear with, protect, help, forgive, love one another. All of these “one anothering” commands of Scripture require one thing: authentic, deep, vulnerable, committed, covenantal, sacrificial, grace-infused, relationships. NOT “big numbers.”

So when you think about your MOPS group or women’s Bible study or executive/professional women’s prayer lunch, what do you get most excited about? If you’re on staff with a Christian parachurch ministry, how do you measure “success”?

Growth in grace? Confidence in Christ? Turning away from the world, the Old Man, and evil desires—and turning to God in saving and sanctifying faith?

Or numbers?

Sobering thoughts. I’ll close with just a few lines from Pastor Croft’s post:

“Dear brothers, we will give an account for our ministries, thus, they need to be evaluated regularly by us and others. Yet, a wrongful and unbiblical method of evaluation will lead to a distracted vision of where and what our ministries should be focused on … We will most certainly give an account, but it will not be based on attendance records, but how faithfully and sacrificially we have watched over the souls of the people the Chief Shepherd has placed in our care until He returns (1 Peter 5:4).”