Two for one... Thursday?

Ok, to my defense Wednesday was one of those days that I started meetings about 9:30 a.m. and ended at 11:30 p.m. I thought about getting on the computer when I got home, until my head hit my pillow, and then I stopped thinking about the computer.

But, the thing that was on my mind for yesterday was:

1. What we Measure becomes our Mission

We are having our annual budget talks right now, and so measurements are being decided for all of our different ministry areas. What I am discovering is that many times I don't actively measure the things that I say that I care about. I often measure the easy thing, or the flashy thing, not necessarily the crucial thing. Over time what happens is that I begin to focus more and more of my attention on those things that I measure, and they become my mission. Regardless of what I say I believe, my life will be focused on the things that receive my focus.

That statement seems pretty obvious, but many people and organizations do not live by it. Take church for example. Most church leaders would say that their mission is to reach people for Christ and see them grow up into fully-devoted followers. But, walk into almost any church in America and you will see that their most visible measures are: 1) Sunday attendance and 2) Giving. There are no measures that are focused on Spiritual Development and health, merely on attendance and giving. Certainly those are two factors of health, but are they the only two? Are they even the most important two?

I believe most churches measure attendance and giving for emotional reasons, not spiritual ones. We feel better when our numbers are "up" and we feel worse when our numbers are down. We worry about down numbers because then we don't know if we are going to meet our needs. We wonder about bills, we wonder about volunteer positions, etc.

This year we are working to increase the things we measure, and make sure that they directly relate to what we say is most important.

2. You cannot overcommunicate vision.

I learned this again last night watching my son eat his dinner. I had prepared a special treat of flaky biscuit with jelly covering. It had an obvious "top", and I cut it into finger-sized pieces. Any adult would have known that the proper way to eat it was to pick up one piece at a time (keeping the "top" side up!), and enjoy. Jared had other ideas. In the end they accomplished the same goal... eating the food, but they were much more messy! It just reminded me that because things seem obvious to me, they will not necessarily be obvious to others. And, it can get messy when a group of people set off to reach the same goal following different paths.