how do you measure the unmeasurable?

Someone once asked me how I measure spiritual growth in a local church; an objective that in many ways is unattainable. Here in the western world we measure based on numbers--how many people are in the room determines how great of a bible study teacher one is, for example. Numbers are easy because they are easily counted. Yet, all of us know of bible studies and churches that have merely bathed lost people in a christian culture. Is it better to have 1000 "Christians" in a church who wont sacrifice anything for Christ or 100 Christ followers who would lay down their lives for His cause? Is it better to have 1000 Christians who have never personally led anyone to Christ or 500 Christians who have each led 3 people to Christ? And what about Jesus? He started with just Himself, grew to 12, grew further to thousands, shrunk it back to 12, then to 11, and then grew it to a few hundred.

Take our ministry to teens. Today, I was out in the community when I ran into one of our boys in the teen ministry; I think he is in 8th or 9th grade. Standing around within ear shot where 6-8 of his peers, some of them clearly not Christ followers. I actually didn't run into Charlie, I walked right past him without seeing him. It was Charlie who yelled out "Pastor Nathan", "Pastor Nathan" in front of his peers when he recognized me. I walked back and within ear shot of his peers, Charlie promptly informed me about how much he learned on the South Lake mission trip last week and how much he is looking forward to going on the Oklahoma mission trip in a couple of weeks. I knew the other kids were listening because they were all staring at us. Then Charlie informed me he was going to go get ready for bible study tonight. If our ministry to teens is producing Charlies, we are on the right track.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for making disciples of as many people as possible and where increasing numbers of people are not becoming disciples of Christ, there should be concern. However, I truly think numbers as indicators of spiritual success are an irresponsible way of evaluating progress. Which is truly an indicator of spiritual growth? Rears in the seats or a young Christ follower out in public among lost peers talking about mission trips and bible studies like it is a normal part of his life, working hard to raise money to go on multiple mission trips in one summer, and sharing the gospel with his peers?

I'm thankful the Lord is blessing NEHBC numerically. We are building buildings and giving huge money and all these things that can be counted numerically. What God has done here is inexplicable. However, I am much more excited when I discover a NEHBCer like Charlie who is a devoted disciple of Christ. What could Christ do with 100 Charlies?

Lord, would You please work in NEHBC to produce many disciple making disciples.