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The things you measure are the things you will accomplish. I’ve said this, coached others based upon it, and managed organizations utilizing various measurements.

I didn’t come up with this. My mentor Peter Drucker did. “That which gets measured, gets done,” he preached. Mr. Drucker was right.

But while true, is it absolutely true?

The implication is that we can measure, and that by measuring, determine if we are making progress. Progress leads to success. Reward success, starve un-success—and you get more progress and more success.

People love success. People want to invest in success. Simple enough, and now you’ve got a sustainable business.

Religious organizations—churches, nonprofits, para-church, mission agencies—give reports from the field: miracles, conversions, baptisms, membership, outreaches, and dollars invested, all of which can be budgeted, compiled on spreadsheets, and presented. Success is impressive. The reports to the donors are tangible and the energy palpable. God is at work—here, here, and here.

Therefore, it makes measurable sense to reallocate personnel and financial resources to invest more heavily in growing markets of ministry.  My financial planner does the same thing with my retirement portfolio. It’s a wise strategy. Invest in success.

So, ministries in Brazil are reporting remarkable increases in conversions while ministries in Vietnam are not. Ministry numbers in much of Africa are up while they are down in Asia. More troublesome is that ministry in China cannot be measured. No one knows if Christianity has deep roots in North Korea or not. Formal ministry in Yemen has gone underground and cannot be traced. Measurements of the Western church are dismal and declining.

I’m hoping your skepticism is rising.

Based upon the truism—“That which gets measured, gets done”—the nonprofits and donors are correct to follow the numbers. Clearly, God is hard at work—and successfully—in Brazil and Africa and at the mega church in the suburbs. He is not as successful—apparently—in Myanmar, Afghanistan, and the inner cities of America and Europe.

But wait. Can God be unsuccessful?

And what about the people laboring in ministry in these unsuccessful arenas? Are these ministers wasting their time? Has God moved on to more lucrative fields of ministry—akin to dumping an underperforming stock and reinvesting in a promising startup?

When the measures are not positive, or not evident, should we conclude God is not active and reallocate funds and reassign personnel?

Is it correct to assume God can be measured and invested in—like a commodity?

Can spiritual activity be charted, rewarded, and propagated with funding as evidenced by numbers on a spreadsheet?

Should you evaluate where God is observably active and join Him there—and withdraw from where you can’t measure His work?

By now, I’m hoping your skepticism is rising.

There is nothing wrong with numbers or evaluation, but they must be used carefully lest we lapse into believing we can put God in a box, get Him to stay there, and then take measure of Him.

God cannot be measured! He will not be measured. Later on, historians might be able to report something of what God did, but He is not static. Just because we inventory what He did and measure that by some valuation important to us does not imply that we know the extent of His work, what He will do tomorrow, or even how He values the investment of His mercies.

Ministry is tricky to measure and more difficult to plan. To be clear, we should set goals, detail objectives, and we fail to pay attention to numbers at our peril. There is no reason to be a fool about measurement and evaluation, but there is no excuse to be foolish enough to think we can measure God or His ministry. 

Here’s the deal: You can reliably define success—provided you use the correct metric and define success properly.

God considers dependence upon Him—through faith and trust—as success. This is true absolutely whether outcome is measurable or not, or whether or not results look like you hoped. The converse is also absolutely true: Any endeavor engaged independently of the Spirit living through you is failure, even if the numbers you generate and results achieved are celebrated.

God spends His mercy with lavish abundance.

Walking in the Spirit, irrespective of measurable or evaluative success, is always the way God defines success. Walking independently of God, irrespective of measurable or evaluative success, is always the way God defines failure. This measure is binary—either or—and may or may not be measurable.  

God prioritizes the good news of Christ, the regenerate heart, eternal relationship, and spiritual transformation. While there are instances where these can be sort of measured, for the most part these are intangibles that God spends His mercy on with such lavish abundance it borders on wastefulness. 

The marketing blogger, Seth Godin, says there are two things you should never do. First, you should never try to measure that which is un-measurable. The reason is simple: You’ll get it wrong and have no way of knowing until much later. Second, when working in areas that cannot be measured, you must not compromise your investment in them. Either go all in—everything you have for the long haul—or stay home.

God gave all, an infinite value, to make a purchase of no worth—you and me. In His economy He then declared us priceless and worthy of life. As the recipients of His valuation and life, He invites us to do the same for others as He did for us via ministry outreach.

Can you measure that? 

How God does what God does is well beyond our pay grade to comprehend, let alone understand. That He is engaged is something we believe, but there are plenty of moments when faith must be supplemented with trust for the reason that God’s activity can’t be measured and we are left vulnerable to mystery, doubt, and obedience.

Thinking again about folks who minister in arenas where the numbers are slow to emerge, or they’re low, or even nonexistent: It’s tempting to conclude that either they are doing a poor job of ministry or God’s not blessing their efforts. But using the equivalent of a Profit and Loss Statement to evaluate God and His ministries is breaking the rule identified by Seth Godin earlier, i.e., that it’s a mistake to measure that which can’t be measured.

God asks that our dependence upon Him and our reliance upon His way of working manifest itself in obedience to His call. This, He promises to honor. But nowhere does God promise that either our trust or His activities can be quantified.

God measures on the basis of Jesus Christ. First, are you in Him? Second, are you allowing Him to live through you? If so, you are living successfully. This means the fry cook who relies upon Christ is successful in ministry whereas the minister to thousands who works from the flesh is failing.

It’s possible to comprehend how God measures success, but it’s impossible to measure God or His endeavors.