How to Measure Success in Ministry

In most of our lives we are measuring things daily. We measure the ingredients for a recipe. We measure our children’s growth in inches. We measure our bodies to see if we meet the world’s standards for being healthy and beautiful.

As we enter the new year of 2013, it occurred to me that maybe the way we usually measure our success in ministry is incorrect. Is the way we measure success in ministry more in line with the way the world measures success…or more in line with the way God would want us to measure success?

If we are not careful, we will measure success by numbers: How many kids are enrolled in our ministry? How many teachers show up for a leadership training? How much offering the kids gave at Christmas time for missions? Don’t get me wrong…numbers are important and I realize that numbers represent souls, but…what if our standard for success this year in ministry mostly relied on these observations:

• How much time do we spend in the Word and praying for our leaders and families?
• How deep are the relationships that we are building with our key leaders?
• How much time do we spend evaluating what we do to strengthen families?
• What percentage of our plans for 2013 are based on Scripture?

Using only numbers to help measure success in ministry can be discouraging. In this new year, try more to please God rather than just meeting the goals determined by men. All actions aimed at equipping leaders to more effectively share Christ as well as strategies to reach kids with the gospel are certainly headed in the right direction for success!