Defining Success

Our 2nd Wednesday night service is tonight and I think our numbers will level off a bit tonight. Some who participated last week aren’t signed up, some have already asked to be taken off for one reason or the other, and I am sure some just won’t make it over tonight. It will be interesting to see what happens as the service begins to settle in as a normal part of Hillcrest. Will it lose some luster and level off? Will it slowly pick up momentum? Will it remain somewhat the same? Reflecting on numbers and McNeal's idea that the scorecards have changed, I’ve asked myself how much of my own psyche is based on the fact that the service is starting off relatively well. If it hadn’t done well, how well would I be doing? It still would have been the right decision, but would it have felt like the right decision? Do numbers always validate one’s efforts, or is participating in the kingdom greater than just a stat sheet? I tend to love numbers- they are clean, they are easy, they don’t lie and they don’t mislead. But so much of the story of the kingdom, the work we find ourselves in, is more than just numbers. If Hillcrest hadn’t won an Angel in Adoption award, if the thank you notes from the community weren't coming in, if offerings were down, if no new folks were hearing of Hillcrest, would we still be doing the right thing? I believe these questions are good gut check questions for me personally. It was just two summers ago that we as a staff went through a vote of affirmation, that people were up in arms over programmatic and systematic changes, that we were fighting over the role of women in ministry, etc. It was just months ago that we were living week to week on offerings, wondering if we’d have jobs the next month, and yet still convinced that it was the right thing to do. One of the things we live by is that we try to the right thing, regardless of consequences. The right things don't change and can't always be measured.