Will Rogers said, “Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.” Had the Holy Spirit not been poured out on the disciples, Will's words would have applied to them. The Holy Spirit was not about to work apart from moving human voices to carry the Gospel to human ears. I think St Paul's words also fit here when he said, “He who sows sparingly reaps sparingly.” In this seventh ABLAZE segment, I want to talk about one of the specific ABLAZE goals, that of reaching 100 million people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ by 2017.

Some have been critical of this as an attempt to use numbers to measure success. Is it wrong to set goals like this? Is it wrong to measure such goals? St Paul certainly set mission goals for himself, as when he said to Barnabas, “Let's return to the congregations we started and strengthen the brothers.” Observable, specific and measurable. We know that he had set for himself the goal to reach Spain with the Gospel. Observable, specific and measurable. Jesus himself set a goal for the 72 who were to go ahead of him to every town and village where he was to go. Observable, specific and measurable. If Jesus was only planning to go about Galilee in a haphazard fashion and did not lay before them his travel plans, he was a pretty poor steward of their time. How would they know where to visit and in what order if He had not provided them with a plan? Whenever a congregation does a neighborhood canvass it has set an observable, specific and measurable goal for itself.

Here's something else we know: St Paul and Barnabas didn't make it back to all of those congregations that time. The Spirit changed their travel plans, diverting them to Macedonia via a dream. In fact, we know that Paul didn't make it back to a lot of places he intended to revisit. Do we call Paul a failure because he didn't reach that goal? Some believe he didn't make it to Spain either. Does that make Paul a double failure? Christ told the 12, “I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” Would any wish to call them failures because their assignment went unfinished? Even more, would any want to have argued with Jesus, “Well if it isn't attainable, why bother with it at all?”

ABLAZE planners did a very Lutheran thing by not setting for ourselves a numerical goal to measure those saved. Setting a goal of seeing 100 million saved would be specific. But certainly not measurable or even observable because only God knows the heart. It is for that reason that Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered ....” God gives the growth and only He knows those who are His. But setting a goal to speak the Gospel (planting or watering) to 100 million people is observable, specific, and measurable. Ah, but again, there's that bugaboo for some: numbers! According to some, numbers are not a big concern for the New Testament apostles and evangelists and shouldn't be for us either. I would agree if we are talking solely about figures. Paul did not have a goal of reaching x number of people with the Gospel. But he did have a plan to reach the cities of the Mediterranean world and inherent in that is numbers of people. So let me ask those who object, "Would you have an equal objection if ABLAZE set as a goal to reach the ten major metropolitan areas of the United States with the Gospel, neighborhood by neighborhood? Would you object if your congregation set a goal of engaging the people of every neighborhood in your town by 2017?" I know at least one of you would ask, “What's the matter with the other major metropolitan regions of the country? Why target only the top ten? What's the matter with small towns and villages?” I'm afraid you will first need to direct that question to St Paul, because he only selected certain places to go. As he recognized the presence of other workers in the field, so we must as well.

You see, when we are talking about speaking the Gospel, we are always talking about numbers - either directly or indirectly. Whether or not we attain our goals perfectly does not make us failures or successes in the sight of Christ. Only the man who did nothing with the treasure he received was censured by the Lord. He was moved by fear rather than faith. If fear of setting goals, if fear of using numbers keeps you inactive, be prepared to get run over ... and worse.

President Cripe