Are You Measuring What God Measures in Your Life and Ministry?

A few weeks ago I shared some of what Hugh Halter and I have been learning about staying in the game for the long haul. That post was How Leaders Keep from Tapping Out, Burning Out or Being Disqualified.

We looked at the first half of our Journeymen Oath #2: “I commit to move at God’s pace and measure what God measures.”

We saw why a sustainable pace matters, and how Jesus’ own parables lay out the pattern. Small is big. Slow is fast. Multiplication wins.

Now let’s finish the oath and talk about the measuring.

The excuses that look good and spiritual

There were times when Jesus called people into kingdom life and they handed him a pile of reasons they couldn’t come just yet.

Not bad reasons. Good ones. Reasons designed to look responsible and even spiritual, while quietly leaving them free to keep building their own kingdom a little longer.

We have ours too. Here’s what Luke recorded.

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

That first guy reminds me a lot of myself.

I am super ready to jump on the new thing for God. Sign up, get after it, let’s go. “I will follow you wherever you go.”

But Jesus knew his heart the way he knows mine, and he saw that this man had never actually counted the cost. It’s like Jesus is asking him, you say you’ll follow me anywhere, but are you willing to give up the comforts you’ve built?

“Lord, first…”

The second man was on board too. He just needed to bury his father first.

That sounds completely reasonable until you know what was being asked. Culturally, he wasn’t requesting time off for a funeral. He was saying: after my father dies, and I’ve finished my duties as his son, and I’ve received my inheritance, then I’ll come be your disciple.

The real issue was two words. Me first.

Everything else was a smokescreen. Procrastination and a desire to feather the nest before obeying, dressed up as family duty.

Jesus’ answer, in effect: there are things a spiritually dead person can do just as well as one of my followers. And there are other things only you can do. Don’t spend your life on the first kind.

Seemingly legitimate concerns become sinful the moment we let them outrank Jesus.

Jobs. Careers. Schooling. Recreation. Retirement. All genuinely important, and all perfectly capable of sitting at the top of a me first list while we tell ourselves we’re being responsible.

The one about looking back

The third man wanted to go say goodbye to his family. You’ve probably spotted the first in there already.

What’s wrong with hugging your family before you go? Come on, Jesus. And that line about putting your hand to the plow and looking back is heavy stuff.

Here’s what I think he’s after. Once a person has tasted his love and grace and forgiveness, once they’ve tasted him, how could they keep glancing back over their shoulder to compare him with the stuff of this world?

And if the world’s stuff still looks that good, if it’s sitting on the same shelf in your heart as Jesus, you’re not going to be much use in his kingdom.

Ouch.

So here’s a place to start. Ask yourself which relationships and commitments you tend to slide in front of God’s kingdom. Look at the ones you’d normally skip past because they’re obviously good and right.

You have them. So do I. They sound like once I take care of this one thing, I’ll get to the discipleship stuff.

That one thing never goes away.

If any of that lands, we talked about the same trap here: Are You Too Busy For Discipleship?

Two lists

Here’s the short version of what Jesus actually measures.

What God measures: – Loving God with all your heart, and growing consistently in your love for him. – Loving people well. Which means giving your family and your friends your best, not giving “the ministry” your best. – Leading your family to be a growing display of the gospel, and a family worth imitating. – Making disciples who actually make disciples. – Pouring deeply into a few people who will multiply everything you’re learning and living.

What we tend to measure instead: – Lots of attenders at our services, always climbing. – A killer worship experience. – More departments, more activities, more programs. – More conferences, more platforms, more speaking. – Being known by many, and actually known by almost no one.

Read those two lists back to back and the problem isn’t that the second one is evil. It’s that it’s measurable this quarter, and the first one isn’t.

That’s the whole trap. We drift toward whatever we can count by Friday.

So how are you doing? What’s on your list of sanctified distractions? What are you measuring that Jesus never called you to count?

If you want the long version of this, it’s the book: Small Is Big, Slow Is Fast.

FAQ

Q1: My church already reports attendance and giving. Do I stop?
Probably not, and you don’t have to. Just add two or three of God’s metrics alongside them and report those with the same seriousness. What gets reported is what gets valued.

Q2: How do you actually measure “making disciples who make disciples”?
By name, out loud. Who are you pouring into, and who are they pouring into? If you can’t answer the second half, that’s the number that needs work, and it’s a far more useful one than attendance.

Q3: What if my elders or my boss only care about the countable stuff?
Bring them along rather than around. Show them a person whose life changed, name them, and tell the story every time you report. Nobody argues with a name for long.