Change takes time…

When darkness dominates in certain parts of the world like India, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Bosnia it is hard for those of us in the West to appreciate how long it can take to see fruit from labor. If we don’t see the “numbers” here that we tend to associate with God’s movement in a year or less it would be difficult to remain motivated as a preacher and open as a Church. In places like Bosnia people may go years without seeing the first person submit to Jesus, but numbers don’t always tell the story through the eyes of God. Faithfulness to a calling in the midst of dry seasons may eventually be what bears a tremendous harvest even while it may be decades later. As church budgets dwindle in the new world economy the temptation will be to look at the numbers when it comes to supporting missionaries. In order to make a decision other than that then prayer and reliance upon the Holy Spirit for guidance are a MUST. If you have been guilty of playing the numbers game with your church or your church budget I’d encourage you to watch this…

The time has come to be equally concerned with the quality and quantity of relationships within the Church and how the Church is doing outside. It has also come time to figure out how to measure how we are doing apart form the weekend worship attendance.