What really matters anyway?

Some of you who were raised in a traditional church will remember those little plaques on the front wall. One of them contained a little box score from the previous week- how many present, how many visitors, how much money collected.

What you value, you emphasize. Since those numbers were in such a prominent place, they must have been pretty important. Right?

For many people, that is the only way to measure success in church- count noses, count dollars, measure square feet of buildings, enumerate people passing through classes or studies. It seems if you can't count it, it doesn't matter. Our own denomination seems to highly value numbers. Open the annual report, and you will be swamped with page after page of small font numerical tables.

Do these numbers mean anything to God? After all, isn't everything we do supposed to glorify Him? Aren't we supposed to be moving on His agenda, not ours? Is it headcount He values, or is it changed lives?

We believe He really values changed lives. We aren't so concerned about numbers, except where they help us understand if we are reaching people. That's why we don't much talk about numbers, why we don't have one of those little plaques on the front wall, why we don't run a box score in the Argyle Connections.

But, are we changing lives? We think so. Not because we are counting noses on Sunday, but because we constantly are talking to people who tell us there is something new, different and exciting going on in their lives since they started coming to Argyle. People are encountering the living Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, and their lives will never be the same.

Listening to these stories is a lot more fun than counting.

Hal Hunter