Recently I was having a conversation over dinner with one of our Momentum Europe Partners. We were talking about the priority of reaching leaders and then discussing the “metrics” of how to evaluate the impact of Momentum Europe.
On the first topic, I pointed out that in the wide world of Cru, a number of ministries are focused on students, churches, families and teachers. But very few are focused on reaching those in the business and professional community – especially those that are the more senior level leaders. Therefore, this is Momentum Europe’s critical contribution.
As to the second point concerning the “metrics” of Momentum Europe, I’m always inspired by the perspective of Bill Bright – the founder of Cru, who put it this way: “Success in witnessing is simply taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.” Therefore, from God’s perspective, “Success” is measured by our initiative in responding to His Word. As I see it, God expects us to be faithful (to His calling) as well as to be full of faith (in terms of what we trust and work toward.)
So, the first key metric is our faithfulness measured by our “taking the initiative”. Reaching people begins with meeting people and reaching more and more people requires commitment not to simply gather and huddle with the first few you meet, but to continue to sow broadly. And that takes continuous initiative. That’s what I look to measure. Are we faithful in sowing broadly? Are we faithful in working toward more and more gospel conversations with people? If we are, then I am happy to leave the results in God’s hands.
The second metric I evaluate is the level of faith that we are exerting as a ministry. We don’t want to be foolish and run ahead of God. But we do want to go where only the Lord can take us and where our faith in Him will lead us.
Growth is one measure of that faith. Momentum Europe started with one country and is now meaningfully ministering in 6 countries in Europe with several more requesting our help. Beyond the geographical measure of growth is the number of people that are being “reached”. Last year the number was well over 1,000 and those 1,000+ people represent thousands and thousands of conversations about the Lord. Each of those conversations took initiative.
Dependence on the Lord, the number of internal and external partnerships, the level of our budget and the spiritual maturity of our staff team are all additional measures of our faith. These are metrics that go beyond a readily measurable “return on investment” and yet I believe are very representative of how the Lord would evaluate our success.