A word from heaven.

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Playing the NUMBERS game

~ The 1st school of thought ~

Oh no! is jie hui going to talk about importance of setting goals and hitting goals in the church? is jie hui going to talk about how we need to hit a certain number in the ns group? is he going to force people to evangelize. is it some quota of growth that he has to set so that God will be happy? or the pastor will be happy?

~ The 2nd school of thought ~

Oh no! is jie hui one of those who is going to complain about how the church should not be too number orientated? is jie hui going to one of those who says that we should not set goals as a group but we need to evangelise because of the overflow of the spirit. Because we love people. Because we have a heart of people. We can't evangelise because we want to hit a goal. Its something much like those salesman or multi level marketing thingy.

We want to hit 50 by the end of June;
We want to reach out to 200 contacts this week;
We want to see 100 disciples of Christ by the end of the year.

If you stay around long enough in church, i'm sure this will not be foreign to you. This kind of numbers challenge normally draw 3 types of response:

1) People who embrace it
2) People who bo chap it (there-they-going-again mentality)
3) People who reject it (mainly 2nd school of thought)

I taught this during the NS word for life today and i'm glad we've set the record straight on this once and for all. And i hope to share with everyone here. The big question here today:

Is setting a numbers goal wrong when we evangelise?

Myth 1: It is unbiblical to talk about numbers in the church.

Response:

Do you know that the bible have a book called "numbers"! so how can we say its unbiblical?? On a more serious note, let's go back to the bible and see how important is numbers? Jesus fed 5000 and 4000 in matthew 14:13 and in matthew 15:29. How do they know its 5000? It was an open space, it could not have been couted cause it was a 5000 seater stadium right? They counted! After Peter spoke in Acts 2, 3000 converted. Again, how did they know? The disciples counted! God did not just drop a magic number in their heart and it was certainly not conveniently presented to them in ehope stats.

So the bible talked about numbers. We always say numbers matter to God right? Let's put the record straight. Talking about numbers is not unbiblical in the church. Let's hold this here 1st. I'll revisit this idea again.

Myth 2: Those people who talk about numbers only want to hit the quota and does not love the people the evangelise to. Response:

Let me show you 2 flow charts.

Flow chart 1:

Outreach -> Goal setting and hitting
(People outreach so that they can hit goals as an end to itself)

Flow Chart 2:

Outreach -> Goal setting and hitting -> God's love
(People outreach so that they hit goals, so that they can spread God's love)

If you believe that the myth is true, then you must be looking at flow chart 1. People out reach so as to hit their quota and their goal. But can i encourage to think further? Do people who set goals set for the fun of it or it gives them satisfaction to go for it?

When we set goals, don't we do it because of God's love for the people as well? That leads us to flow chart 2. If we have been outeaching based on the flow chart 1, i admit its not right and we need to relook at why we evangelise. But what is wrong if setting goals and hitting it helps us to spread God's love to others?

It is true that some of you may question. Why can't we just skip the goal setting and hitting part and just go straight to

Flow chart 3:

Outreach -> God's love
(People outreach to spread God's love)

We outreach simply because of God's love. Why do we want to set goals. My question to you is if it is not unbiblical and it helps us to stay focused on a short term task, why not??? You see, outreach is what we do, God's love is always the final cause of it. Goal setting and goal hitting is a platform on which we spread God's love. Can we fire the church just because we choose to use this effective and biblical platform?

Ok, we've answered 2 myths. let me share with you an analogy. i hope it'll give you a pyridine shift on numbers and goal setting such that you don't have to cringe and feel uncomfortable every time your leader talks about numbers.

The bible says that God already have a race marked out for us.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us
~ Hebrews 13:1 ~

Goal setting is like setting road signs along the way to point everyone to the same direction along the race already marked out for us.

Let's say we're meeting at Bedok reservoir park for picnic and we are all driving there in individual cars. Some of us can reach there without referring to any road signs because we know the route well. But some of us needs to refer religiously to every road sign that comes along the way so that we do not get lost. Does that mean that because the road signs are redundant to some, the government do not need to put them there for the sake of those who need them?

Some of us will need the goal setting to push us to outreach with urgency. Some of us can outreach naturally and actively without having to set a goal. Fair enough. But don't accuse those who needs a goal to function well for being not loving and having hidden agenda. We're all going to Bedok reservior! and in this case, we're all working towards advancing the kingdom of God!

Before the people who think they are more comfortable without setting a goal become too happy, let me warn you about 3 dangers with a absolutely no-goal-setting approach.

1) You may not be able to reach out to people you are not comfortable with. Very much you'll evangelise to people you are more comfortable with or to your close friends. you love them and you want them to come to know Christ.

2) You will not have the urgency to reach out to people. When you reach out, it may be very feeling base. you reach out to them because you feel a compassion for them. But can i encourage you that God not only wants you to reach out to people you have compassion for but people He has compassion for. Our human imperfect love will be the thing that will differentiate the two.

3) You will stay in your comfort zone many a times. Obviously it is much easier to outreach to people you feel for. But it is much more difficult to reach out to people you do not feel for at all humanly. But God still wants to reach them!

4) Many a times, we fear goal setting so much not because we think it is wrong.We fear it so much because we are afraid that it will push us out of our comfort zone. That we will have to work hard and share the gospel once we talk about the goal.

Let's go back to the road sign example.

As leaders, we need to put road signs there so that as a corporate body, it is clear where our immediate destination is. If you can get to this destination without using the road signs, fair enough, but there are people who needs it. And don't be so confident of yourself that you can hit every destination without referring to the road signs the leader plant. With or without the road sign, the final destination is the same. We want to spread God's love to other people.

So there is no contradiction of the 1st and 2nd school of thoughts. We set goals so that we can gauge and be effective in spreading God's love with the urgency it deserves. If it helps you, good. If you think you can do without it, fair enough. But just make sure you flow with the corporate destination and do your part in what needs to be done.

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Christian Living

The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

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Sunday, July 20, 2008