Get a Handle on Reality

Any normal pastor would agree that they would love to have some kind of handle on the reality of where their church is spiritually. Measuring a person's spiritual health is such a difficult thing, and if done with the wrong motives can actually be a very destructive thing. But as a pastor, it's important to be able to gauge the effectiveness of your discipleship programs. Are they doing what we think they're doing? Pastors can take a guess or just hope they are, but unless you have visible proof, it's very difficult to have even a grasp on the reality of your church's spiritual health. And while you can't really gauge a person's spiritual health because it's such an intangible thing, you can measure how many people are placing themselves in a healthy discipling environment (small groups, Sunday School, etc.).

Here's a few questions to ask yourself to see where your church is?

* What does an individual in your church do to be discipled? Is their a program or process to walk them through a journey of discipleship? If not, you might want to work on that.
* What percentage of those that attend your church on a Sunday morning are going through your discipleship process? You will never have 100%, but a healthy percentage is 50-60%. Don't get discouraged if you're well below this percentage. The big thing is that you're actually looking at the number. Part of grasping the reality of your church's spiritual health is measuring. Looking - not assuming.