A few summers ago, I decided to do something I had never done before: lay a laminate floor. I attended a class about laminate flooring at a hardware store, purchased the needed materials and supplies, and readied myself for the job. But upon removing old flooring, I realized I had a problem: the floor was not level. Laminate flooring does not work well with on an uneven base. So after an unsuccessful attempt at using some quick dry floor leveler and way too much sanding, I finally prepared to tackle the new flooring.
From previous work, I had learned an important principle:
measure twice and cut once.
Despite consistently measuring twice there were still times I made mistakes and other times when I measured more than twice. I recognize that without measuring, I would have wasted much flooring, time, and money.
The same is true in our discipleship effort. The problem in many churches is that we fail to measure. As a result discipleship efforts are ineffective or incomplete. Sometimes we do measure, but we measure the wrong things. Sometimes on the floor job, I measured inside when I should have measured outside. In discipleship, we may measure attendance in worship and Sunday School/small groups but little else. These measures matter, but other measures may be more meaningful.
What should we measure to help us recognize the effectiveness of our disciple-making efforts? Leave a Reply below to share measurements you use or you believe would be helpful. Keep in mind that there are many helpful measurements. How can we measure quality, quantity, and effectiveness? Disciple. Measure. Adjust as necessary. Make disciples!
