{"id":29994,"date":"2014-05-22T03:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T09:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.churchvolunteercentral.com\/?p=29994"},"modified":"2014-05-22T03:00:20","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T09:00:20","slug":"stop-playing-numbers-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/lead\/stop-playing-numbers-game\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Stop Playing the Numbers Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNumbers. They\u2019re the currency of ministry. The crowd has become the definition of ministry success.\u201d\u2014Thom Schultz<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

How many people attended your last Bible study or event? And how did you feel about that number? Probably one of two ways:
\n1. Yay! More people showed up; we must be doing it right!
\n2. Sigh…Not as many people as we wanted or expected came. What are we doing wrong?<\/p>\n

Sound familiar? You invested a lot of time, energy, and emotion to create the opportunity for people to connect and grow in their faith. You prayed. You asked God for wisdom, guidance, and strength. You were excited for the vision he gave you and your ministry team.<\/p>\n

Then\u2026only 5 people showed up. Or only 50. Or only 200 instead of the 250 you had last time. The numbers fell short. You felt disappointed, discouraged, and perhaps even defeated.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how numbers become the currency of ministry\u2014high equals good, low equals bad. Most leaders don\u2019t realize how often they measure success by crowd size instead of changed lives.<\/p>\n

How would Jesus measure success? \u201cWhen you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.\u201d (John 15:8)\u00a0People are easy to count. Spiritual fruit is not. So after your next event, will you count quantity, or will you invest the time to measure quality?<\/p>\n

In order to measure quality, count change, the true currency of ministry. If only one person showed up for your Bible study, would you be willing to laugh, cry, and share as God transforms her life? Her one life? Isn\u2019t it time we said more \u201cHallelujahs!\u201d and \u201cYays!\u201d to one changed life, instead of the number of chairs we filled?<\/p>\n

Ask the people impacted by your ministry leadership to share their stories. Make a file, scrapbook, or ministry archive filled with short testimonies to document how people\u2019s lives were transformed through your ministry. Start a Facebook page, create a bulletin board, or host a Changed Lives event to create more opportunities for people to share.<\/p>\n

Remember, the number in the crowd does not equal the success of your ministry. Even though Jesus had large crowds follow him, the people weren\u2019t amazed because of the numbers. They were amazed at him. Measure the fruit of change in your ministry, and you\u2019ll be amazed at Jesus, too!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[Excerpted from Group’s Women’s Ministry Leader<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNumbers. They\u2019re the currency of ministry. The crowd has become the definition of ministry success.\u201d\u2014Thom Schultz How many people attended your last Bible study or event? And how did you feel about that number? Probably one of two ways: 1. Yay! More people showed up; we must be doing it right! 2. Sigh…Not as many people as we wanted or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":29996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[423,424,141,425],"class_list":["post-29994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lead","tag-evaluating-ministry","tag-evaluation","tag-leadership","tag-stop-playing-numbers"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Stop Playing the Numbers Game - Group Children's Ministry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cNumbers. They\u2019re the currency of ministry. 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