When ABLAZE announced goals of speaking about Christ to 100 million people, of revitalizing 2000 congregations and starting 2000 new ministries by 2017, a number of people responded negatively about keeping track of numbers or setting numerical goals. Some say keeping track of numbers is an American obsession. Others curse the Church Growth movement for infecting our Synod with a seeming obsession to count and set numerical goals.

Recently I had an interesting encounter with an old text book from my Springfield seminary days way back in 1972. A course taught by Professor John D. Fritz called Parish Administration provided us seminarians with a 145-page compilation of materials used by various parishes “for the purpose of efficient and effective utilization of the gifts God gives to His Church for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” “for “getting the Word out.” (Introduction)

Among the charts and graphs found in that binder were these: contribution profile, membership growth chart, treasury receipts, expenditures, sample budget, anticipated income, stewardship brochure, income exhibit and stewardship concerns, and a pastor's report form that included a daily activity log with places for entries under these headings: administration, calls (subdivided into sick, evangelism, home), counseling, meetings, rites, other. Each sheet had blank spaces – a lot of blank spaces - where numbers were to be inserted.

One might observe that many of those forms had to do with finances and stewardship. If I'm not too far off base, every congregation establishes a financial goal for itself, a “spending guide,” as it is sometimes called. So what would a pastor do if he saw that receipts were down, but economic times were bright and members were living in affluence? Some might say, “That's God's business,” and do nothing. Others might turn to the Old Testament and preach on the tithe. Still others might devise a contest that encouraged and rewarded good giving. Still others might follow the old custom of publishing a parish giving record for all to see. I would hope that the majority of Lutheran pastors first would try to diagnose the situation and only then address it Scripturally from both Law and Gospel. But the point is, how would the pastor ever know a situation needed to be addressed if some standard for measurement had not been established? If no one bothered to determine that a “normal” temperature is 98.6 or so, that a resting heartbeat rate should be between 60 and 80 beats per minute, how would anyone be able to diagnose illness? One might just as well say of health care, “That's God's business,” and refuse to collect measurements that would help diagnose illness.

Why have congregations set financial goals as at least partial indicators of congregational health? Why have a number of congregations gone ballistic because they hardly have a Sunday School anymore? If they aren't counting, who would notice? Why do congregations want to keep a record of Sunday worship attendance? If a congregation discovered that its attendance continued to shrink while the surrounding population was growing, would they be satisfied with the answer, “That's God's business”? If you had a matter that needed to be settled with a co-worker, would it be wrong to say to yourself, “I'm going to speak to him/her about it before the end of the week”? Even that is a goal to be pursued.

So why, in the eyes of some, is it OK to set a financial goal for the congregation, but not OK to set a goal for numbers of people to whom a Gospel witness could be spoken? Are not both measures of sanctification? Why do some pastors encourage parishioners to pick a percentage for their giving and continue to work with that year-after-year, but would never think to challenge parishioners to speak about Christ to someone once a month for the same year-long period? Would they balk at challenging their members to work in a soup kitchen once a month as an exercise of their faith? Tutor a student? Visit in a nursing home? There is a difference between encouraging one to do those things as exercises of the faith that works through love, and making one's eternal salvation depend upon doing them. Of all people, we Lutherans should know the difference.