Measuring Success

Years ago a friend of mine suggested that success in ministry is best measured by:

The language we use
The people we honor and
The stories we tell.

Language, people and stories don’t fit as neatly into tables and graphs as giving or attendance numbers but they are so much better indicators of when God is on the move.

Yesterday Grace was filled with language, people and stories.

A few years ago words like “Tree House,” “Backyard” or “Word Up” had no special meaning around Grace. Today they are an integral part of our vocabulary and more importantly a deeply integral part of how we are reaching kids and parents. Our Children’s Ministry Team was visited yesterday morning by a member of the reThink Group. I am so proud of our Children’s Team for catching the attention of one of the leaders in innovative ministry and even more proud of the ways they are reaching kids each and every week.

In our 11:00 Sanctuary service we honored (as we commissioned) a new group of Stephen Ministers. These ministers made a huge commitment to prepare themselves to love neighbors as a part of our care giving strategy. They are well deserving of our respect and honor and the care they provide is essential to our vision.

Our Director of Missions, Melissa Brown, began to share a little of the stories her team gathered on their recent trip to Kenya. God is most defiantly on the move in Africa and what a privilege we have to be a small part of that movement.

The language we use, the people we honor, the stories we tell… yesterday was a great “success” by all accounts!