Mapping Our Progress
June 12th, 2007Recently I read of an interesting comparison. In World War II, the Allies measured progress by the number of miles or kilometers that the army advanced each day. So, we took Africa from the Nazis, then Italy, then France, and finally Germany. The last complete victory for American troops came in 1945.
On the other hand, during Vietnam, progress was determined in a different way. Someone came up with the concept of the “body count.” Instead of measuring progress through captured territory, we measured success by how many casualties there were. If we inflicted more casualties than we received, we were making “progress.” Experts say that this view negatively affected our service personnel in Vietnam.
How do we measure progress in the church? Typically, we have adopted the “body count” mentality. If we have more bodies in the pews this week than last, we are making progress. If we are able to put “notches in our gun handle” to count the converts we have made, then we are successful and making progress. By the way, certain Jewish teachers used to display the foreskins of the Gentile converts on their walking sticks.
Is that all we are about — just a body count? The numbers of which we boast or despair represent people. These people are the ones for whom Jesus died. These people are the ones who are to grow into fully devoted followers of Jesus. They are not just a statistic or a yardstick of progress.
The Great Commission has two parts. One is to make disciples. The other is to help these disciples mature in Christ.
Maybe there are other ways to measure our progress. Maybe there are spiritual factors that need to be considered as well as the numeric. Maybe we can measure our progress by fruit that is born. When love, joy, peace, etc. are displayed we can see progress where once we say hate, sadness, conflict, etc. This is harder than a head count, but maybe it is more accurate.
Keep The Light Burning!
Perry Greene
