I’m kinda tired of thinking about ministry results in terms of numbers. We are supposed to be content with our lives, and if we look at numbers, we’ll never be happy! We can always have more people. Please don’t get me wrong, I want to get as many people as possible in the doors of our church to hear the message of the Gospel. But to set a particular number goal  can be very stressful. You can only be happy for a few moments after reaching your number goal, and then you must strive to hit the next one.

Yes, we count people – it’s good to know how many we have. But, to use numbers as our only standard of “success” (if that’s what you want to call it) in ministry isn’t good. I’ve decided that I don’t want to use the total number of people present as the standard of measure. Instead,I want to think of ministry in terms of “how many people I’ve helped today”. After all, isn’t that what “ministry” is, helping people?

How many people did I share the Gospel with today?
How many people did I pray with or for today?
How many people did I encourage today?
How many people knew that I loved them today?

Some days, it may be only one or two. Other days, it may be several. Those numbers are far more personal than saying “We had (so many) in attendance today!” It’s great to have a church house full of souls, but even if you only have one person (beside the pastor) in church, that is still one person you helped! Isn’t that a blessing?!