I have come to dislike the word “metrics”
– a word used by organizations to measure people and the success of their
efforts. It is a business term that has crept into conversations within the
church, especially where organizations need to measure a certain level of
visible success to justify their continued existence to a donor base. 

This need to always be measured becomes a slow and corrosive drip in the
spiritual stomach of those who live under its open faucet. When the Church
begins to measure and validate its existence using the same tools as the business systems of the world we put ourselves in a place of jeopardy. This
jeopardy requires that we align only with those who support our desired metric
of success. This becomes a masked form of dishonor. In the end, the very ones
who may carry the potential to bring breakthrough have been excluded from the
conversation because they do not measure up to our predetermined metric.  True significance in God’s Kingdom cannot be
measured by the metrics of success.  It
can only be measured by faithfulness.

If your significance in any group is determined only by the metrics of visible success
you may be working for the wrong people. Ask God to lead you to a group who are
not consumed with the production of these metrics and who understand your true value
apart from the limits of measured productivity. Jesus Christ and His first
followers failed to measure up to the success metric of their day, but in the
end, they changed the world.