How do you measure success in your life and in your service for Jesus? When you get to the end of your life, are standing at the edge of your own grave looking back, what will you have to see in order to say that your life, from God’s perspective, was a success?

It has been my experience in the ministry arena that success is often measured in terms of numbers. In the church it can be, and often is, reduced to “noses and nickels;” how many people and how much money.

There’s certainly a place for “numbers,” but when numbers become the primary means of measuring success, we can be heading for trouble.

Let’s face it, in the church we struggle to know how to judge the worth of our work without using numbers. The problem can be that rising numbers tempt us with pride, while falling numbers bring a sense of failure accompanied by discouragement.  The more we move from being merely aware of numbers to being fixated on them, the more inclined we are to comparison, to the judgment it contains, and to the competition it produces.

So, apart from simply counting, what are other ways of measuring success in ministry? What are some questions that come to your mind that you can share to create an ongoing dialogue on measuring success?