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Series:  Vision - Where MHCC is heading in 2007 4.  Weights and measures - why numbers matter and what we'll look for Dennis Mullen  1.28.7

            Lifehack.org had a good article this week by Kyle Pott about how he lost 50 pounds in three months and kept it off for a year.  These ten tips on weight loss and weight maintenance are pretty good and very realistic.  Kyle got himself a scale that measures tenths of a pound because he says that if you go from 170.8 to 170.2, you can see that you're making progress where an ordinary scale wouldn't show you.  He says that once you get the weight off, you should set a weight that you'll never exceed again, maybe 5-8 pounds heavier than you are, to allow for some fluctuation, so that if you hit that weight, you kick back in to full diet mode, and he says you should drink 8 glasses of water a day, and several other ideas you've heard of.

            The reason I mention Kyle Pott is that his successful diet is driven by a vision – Kyle, 50 pounds lighter – but it is all about weights and measures.  Tenths of a pound, glasses of water, an ultimate goal.  No one would ever expect it to be otherwise. 

            Last week we talked about being driven by a vision – No One Left Behind.  The church has a mission in this world, and an enemy who seeks to devour souls, and we have to do everything in our power to see that no one is left behind  to him.  And we talked about three areas where MHCC needs especially to apply this vision – in building community; in evangelism (bridging the gap to unbelievers and sharing the good news) and in relief, where we meet the needs of those who suffer, around us and around the world.  But I want you to know that such a vision will be totally ineffective unless we lay out some weights and measures by which to track our progress.  Numbers, in other words.        

            If a minister wants to get into trouble, a good way to do it is to talk about numbers – not the OT book, but numbers in the sense of how many people come to church.  That gives people a chance to say that numbers are unspiritual and that we should focus on more important things, or that we’re getting our eyes off the vital things like repentance and life change, which can’t be easily measured, and focusing instead on how big the crowd is, which is related to how big the offerings are.

            And there is enough truth in these criticisms to make me take them seriously.  In fact, our tendency to obsess about numbers led me to do something about a year ago that has been unpopular with some, and that is to get rid of the attendance board, “the scoreboard”, on the back wall of the church that gives a count of how many people are here today and how much money we collected last Sunday.  I really felt that this weekly numbers fix gave some of us an unhealthy way to evaluate each worship service.  If we had “a good crowd”, all is well, until next week.  Now we still put our monthly averages in the newsletter because (as I’ll get to in a second) numbers can still be a useful way to track our progress, but we got rid of the board because that weekly posting symbolically elevates numbers to a place they don’t deserve and communicates a message to our visitors that THIS is how we measure success.

            Yet there is a place for counting, for weights and measures that help us to see if we’re moving ahead or sliding back.  We wouldn’t appreciate the magnitude of Jesus’ miracle of feeding a crowd if the Spirit hadn’t inspired a count of 5,000 men plus women and children.  We wouldn’t appreciate the impact of the Holy Spirit being poured out at Pentecost if Acts 2:41 didn’t tell us that about 3,000 were baptized and added to Christ’s body that day.  And we wouldn’t know how the Spirit kept marching on through the preaching and miracles done by the apostles if Acts 4:4 didn’t tell us that the number of men had grown to about 5,000 by then.  In fact, whenever God’s Word talks about giving a tithe or “where two or three are gathered together” or even the multitude in Revelation that no one could count, it is using numbers as one measure of spiritual things.  That leads me to believe that weights and measures help indicate how well we're doing our job.

            Let me appeal to your experience too.  How do you track your own health?  There’s the number of your body weight, and your blood pressure, your cholesterol (good and bad).  Then maybe you also measure how long you can walk or how far you can run or how much weight you can lift.  If you have kids, you probably put them up against a growth chart to see which percentile they’re in, and you keep a close watch on their grades in school (which as they get older are increasingly numerical).  You evaluate your financial health by counting up some numbers too. 

            Well measuring the church numerically can be useful too, as LONG as we recognize that growth in numbers is only part of the story, not the whole thing.  It’s only part of the story  in just the same way that, if you have a heavy pain in your chest all day, it doesn’t matter that all your health numbers are good, as important as they usually are.  And some churches have grown numerically and yet failed to deal with some cancer growing in their body which eventually took a toll.  And numerical growth is only part of the health story in that SOMETIMES, in certain cultures or at certain moments in history, faithfulness to Christ brings decline in membership and at all historical moments and places, things grow quite apart from God’s blessing.  Islamic extremism is growing.  The American Idol audience is growing.  Most of us aren’t prepared to say this is God’s hand at work.  And it is possible for the church to grow and for THIS church to grow apart from God’s blessing, apart from growth in spiritual maturity and health.  Numbers, therefore, are only part of the story, but they are an important part.

            Today as we finish up this series on the vision for this church, we're going to step through the three areas we mentioned last week – evangelism, community, and relief – and look at what we'll measure.

            Evangelism.  Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 - 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."   When the Spirit began to be poured out in Acts 2, the disciples did that, and that's when you start to read reports of numbers – 3,000 were added that first day, etc. 

            Now sometimes in certain places and times, when the Gospel is preached, people turn away.  Very often it isn't during times of persecution when this happens – that's when the church often grows, but underground, below the surface of society.  Rather, it is sometimes when there is ease, peace and plenty when the grace and truth are preached, and people yawn, or they go to some other church where the grace is cheaper and the potential costs of discipleship are ignored. 

            Now there is no doubt that we live in a place of relative peace and plenty.  At the same time, though, it is a time of spiritual emptiness in which many have all of their needs met and many of their wants, and yet they're finding that it doesn't satisfy.  I believe this is a time of great opportunity to preach the good news of Jesus Christ, to preach repentance and forgiveness and freedom from sin and addiction and purpose in life through denying ourselves and taking up our cross, and people are responding to this message.  It's a time when we should expect people to respond to the Gospel and for the church to grow as a result, and we built this building in faith that this is such a time and that we needed more room for people to find Christ in this family.

            I'll call as a witness someone who probably wouldn't support my conclusions – Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution, which I finished reading this week.  Claiborne has a whole chapter on how the church may need to grow smaller and become more faithful, and he makes some good points.  But his book (which I highly recommend) is all about devoting yourself FULLY to Christ, shunning material possessions, committing your life to bringing relief and justice to the poor, loving others enough to be willing to die on their behalf – high commitment things that people don't want to hear, right?  Well...his book is becoming a best-seller, and it is helping to stir up an irresistible revolution, especially among young people but not only them.  He is preaching the good news that Jesus preached of losing your life to find it, and people are drinking it up.  That is good news for evangelism AND discipleship too.

            Because we live in such times, our efforts at evangelism should produce results, and though it is true that not everyone we win to Christ will come to MHCC, many will because evangelism is relational, and when we invite people to Christ, we invite them to our family in Christ too.  And so, here are the results we'll look for.

            2006 – average attendance at morning worship – 319.

            By June, if we do our work faithfully, we will pray, work and plan for an average of 360.  By the end of the year, 420.

            This isn't explosive growth, but it is faster than we've ever experienced.  And since each number isn't really a number at all, but a person with an eternal soul and an eternal destiny, I implore you to begin today to make this a substantial part of your prayers, and to start getting more urgent in inviting people to join us here.  In March, we plan to teach specifically about reaching out, building bridges and getting to know people who need the good news, in a series called “Just Walk Across the Room”.  For now, remember that this is God's work but it is work he calls us, requires us to join Him in.  The day will come when the time for making a choice about Jesus comes to an end, and we want to do everything we can do to see that there is no one left behind.

            Community.  This passage from Acts 2:42-47 is the image that captivates us:  42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

            Our efforts in evangelism are directly tied in to our work in building community.  That's because we CANNOT grow as a church without creating new places for people to belong.  Even a church of 80-90 people is too big for everyone to really take part in community, which is why a healthy church of that size will have 2-3 good adult Sunday School classes or home Bible studies and maybe a men's Bible study on Saturday and a Women's Bible study on Tuesday night, as well as groups divided by age for younger people.  10 or 15 adults meeting each week and praying for one another is how we build community.  It's significant that Jesus chose a group of 12 to pour his life into, and that the early church in Jerusalem (which consisted of thousands) met from “house to house” as well as in the temple courts.

            Now it's easy to do the math and see that to make room for 40 new people by June, we'd need to start 3-4 new groups by June (for 10-13 adults), and to make room for 100 new people by December, we need 8-10 new groups by then.  Most of our current adult classes and groups have reached that size already, and so are saturated.  Others still have room, and if you attend a class that has room to grow, invite some people to it!  (I can give you some leads).

            The mistake we may have made in the past is to think of groups solely in terms of Home Bible Fellowships, which are great, but not the only kind of groups where people find friends and build community.  Right now, David Pryor is putting a lot of effort into planning the launch of some new groups, and over time some of them will be for Bible study but others will be for service or shared interest or outreach, etc.  But the point is that if we can't arrive at June with 4 new groups where people find friends in Christ, and at December with 10 more, then we're probably leaving people behind as far as community is concerned, and we need to be driven by the vision of No One Left Behind.

            Relief.  The picture here is painted in Matthew 25:37-40 - 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

            40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

            When it comes to relief, one of the most important things we can measure right now is money – the amount we give to people and ministries outside our walls vs. the amount we spend on our ministry here – buildings, utilities, ministers, curriculum, etc.  This can be an enlightening number, especially since almost all of our giving that goes outside MHCC goes to helping people with various needs and/or preaching the saving good news of Jesus Christ.  We don’t (of course) give money to political causes and only rarely do we take up a collection for a singing group or something – so as long as we keep our priorities right, and remember our mandate from the Lord to help the poor, then the amount we give outside our walls is a pretty good indicator of our commitment to relieve the pain of those who suffer and offer help to those who need it.

             

Giving through MHCC - 2006
General Offerings			$492,155
Bld. Funds Applied to Mortgage			$136,719
Interest			$763
Pepsi Machine			$219
Restricted Funds			$177,514	*
Subtotal			$807,370
*Bld. Funds Applied to Construction, Well Project, etc.

 

            The Well Project, to purchase two water wells for villages in Africa through World Vision, accounted for approximately $26,000 of those restricted funds and much of the rest is accounted for by the money we gave for the new building.  (BTW, “restricted” means that you didn’t give this to the general fund, but for something specific, like the well project).  Also note how important the Pepsi machine down by the Education Building is!)

            So our income for 2006 was $807,370.  In addition to that, you gave things that don’t show up on the balance sheet that were to help needy people, and this is my attempt to value these:

 

Angel Tree			$2,000	(80 x $25)
Operation Christmas Child			$1,245	(83 x $15)
Food Pantry			$2,500	est.
Subtotal:			$5,745
Total Giving:			$813,115

 

            Based on these estimates (which I tried to make conservative), our giving jumps $5,745 to $813,115 or so.

            Now the key question is:  How much of that goes outside our walls?  Here’s the stuff that appears on our financial statements:

 

 

Spending outside our walls - 2006
Benevolence (Budget)			$8,529
Hands of Mercy			$1,440
Missions (Budget)			$45,999
Benevolence (Restricted)			$1,378
T & C Class			$212
Food Pantry (Cash donations)			$510
Well Project plus…			$27,861
Subtotal:			$85,929

 

            Again, to be as conservative as we can, we don’t include some things.  For example there were substantial gifts given to help MHCC people in times of need, and these are important and appear on our records, but I didn’t include them in spending outside our walls.  Missions trips too.  Practically every year we spend a significant amount of money to go somewhere and meet a need, but since so much of the benefit is the spiritual education and challenge that our people get, I don’t include that either. 

            But when we include the substantial amount we spend to help people locally through benevolence, thorough Hands of Mercy (a local food pantry), the missions we support monthly, the Well project (and that line includes some other donations to World Vision), we spent $85,929 outside our walls in 2006.

            Now let’s add on the spending side the same things we added on the receiving side…

           

Angel Tree			$2,000
Operation Christmas Child			$1,245
Food Pantry			$2,500
Subtotal:			$5,745
Total spending outside…			$91,674

 

            …and we spent over $91,000 in money and goods outside our walls in 2006.

            So:       Total income - $813,115

            And:     Total outside spending:  $91,674

            Percentage:  11.27%

 

            I’d like to describe that in four words:  Not bad.  Not enough.

            Not bad in that 2006 was the first year of paying for our new building, and we knew it would eat up a large share of our budget.  That doesn’t bother me.  This building isn’t meant to be a luxury for us, but rather an investment in the next generations AND in people today who don’t yet know Christ and who are not yet part of our family and God’s Kingdom.  Our building is an expense that we put off as long as we could and it’s one that we finally had to take on and in the long run it can be a tremendous asset and investment in the Kingdom.  So, taking on the new building really caused our budget to balloon and naturally everything became a smaller percentage of it than it once was.  In that light, 11.27% is not bad.

            But it’s not enough.  I have come to believe that the world will begin to take Christ seriously when his church takes the LEAD in feeding the hungry, fighting disease, providing shelter and everything else – the church, not Bill and Melinda Gates or Bono or Angelina Jolie.  For that to happen, God’s people in the church need to catch the vision for how great the world’s needs are and how much we can do about it in the Name of Jesus Christ.

            I'm going to challenge us to set a goal to move that figure for outside spending UP 2 percentage points.  Now using these numbers, to go from 11.27% to 13.3% is an increase of $19,000 given to projects outside our walls, for the purposes of relieving suffering in the name of Jesus Christ.  This might be for more wells for Africa, or for a medical clinic in central America, or for temporary housing for single mothers right around Roane County or shelter for homeless people in Knoxville.  Probably a combination of all the above. 

            Actually I have a much larger vision, or dream, than that.  Wouldn't the world take notice if the church all across America, a financially-blessed land to be sure, made it a habit to do MOST of its spending to fight poverty, AIDS, diseases, and to generally relieve the suffering of those who bear God's image and represent Christ to us?  I'm talking about spending 51% percent of our money outside our walls. 

            What would that take?  It would take us renouncing the idol of materialism, of seeing a vision far greater for ourselves personally than a giant flat-screen TV and a hi-definition DVD player and a larger, more beautiful home.  That's where MHCC needs to go if we're going to be a faithful, powerful witness for the love of Jesus Christ, and if we go there, people will want to follow – follow Him, not us.

            But that's not my vision for this year – instead, a baby step in the right direction of 2% more.

 

            So those are the weights and measures.  If you didn't write them down, you will see them again, starting in the next few weeks in all our publications, and we need to hold one another accountable for them, and if we're not achieving them, to find out why. 

            But the weights and measures aren't the vision.  The vision is No One Left Behind.  We could sit here and argue about whether or not we really like the idea of the church growing, or whether or not we have the time to put into evangelism or the money into relief.  But consider this (from Bob Russell):  If your house were on fire, how many of your family would you want to get out before you were satisfied? 

            You'd insist on no one left behind.

            That's how God feels about his family too, and he has given us a part to play in it.

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