Rebecca’s Metric

Ideas are like used cars. They may be new to you, but generally they have already been thought of by someone else.

I heard an idea this last week that was new to me. It brought me encouragement. It might bring the same to you.

Rebecca works in our office for Lutheran Special Education Ministries. This is an excellent ministry that serves students across the country who have special learning needs. https://luthsped.org/

She and I were talking about her former congregation and the closing service I had conducted on Sunday. It is a sad and hard thing to see a congregation close. While it does bring lament, it doesn’t diminish what has happened in the years of a congregation’s existence. In this case the congregation had reached 70 years of ministry.

That’s what her metric helped conceptualize. She said that one of the metrics that LSEM tracks is the number of students helped. She explained that if their ministry helps one student for even just one hour and then never again, that hour of helping never goes away. It ends up in the number of people helped column. It never “didn’t happen.” So, this particular metric never goes down. It either stays the same or goes up. The rate of increase might accelerate or decelerate, but ultimately the line always advances upward.

Think about that with the Church. When someone meets Jesus, is brought to faith, that event never “didn’t happen.” The rate of how often that happens (less often in numerically declining congregations and more often in growing congregations) may accelerate or decelerate, but the result is always cumulative. In the end the line always advances upward.

The Church grows. The Kingdom comes.

Congregations come and go. So do denominations.

But the Church grows. The Kingdom comes.

The words of Jesus ring true, “I will build my Kingdom and the gates of hell will not prevail.”  Matthew 16:18

We are living in a time when many congregations are clearly in decline. But that does not mean that Jesus’ Kingdom is. It is always and only on the rise.

That idea, that point of view, that sort of metric, Rebecca’s metric, brought me encouragement.  

Which doesn’t mean that we in our congregations should capitulate to decline mentality. We should individually and corporately seek to share our Gospel hope with others in our various communities. As God worked hard to give us free grace, we need to continue to work hard to share that free grace with others. We should hope and pray that we see increase right in front of our eyes where we are.

But we should not be discouraged or defeated if we don’t. What has already been done does not become undone. Like gas stations, grocery stores, and book shops, some congregations close. In the midst of that though, we look with Kingdom eyes and Rebecca’s metric: Jesus’ Kingdom comes.  

This idea may not be new to some of you. Hopefully, it is refreshing to all of you.