A while ago I spent a season of time in looking at John 15:1-17 where Jesus reminds us, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from Me you can’t do a thing. (v.5). One writer spoke about how the idea of focusing on fruit, results, events, projects and all the general business of ministry causes us to lose our life-giving connection with the Vine:
‘When we live in a relationship with Jesus Himself, when the Holy Spirit is that enlivening force for us, when we are rooted and grounded in the reality of the love of God, then we produce fruit. Then we become empowered to do something about those needs [in ministry]. When we just focus on work, on the needs, etc., we are cutting ourselves off from God.’ [Rich Mullins]
I know you know this! I would love to hear how you abide in Jesus in the midst of ministry and find your joy and worth in Him rather than in success in ministry! I think this is vitally important that we remind ourselves, especially when we are involved in a ministry where ‘much fruit’ is sometimes difficult to find. And it’s even more important when the statistics and measurements we are asked to make an accounting of each month don’t always reflect the focus of catalytic ministry.
I wanted to share with you some ideas of how you can keep track of measurements that help you to know if you are on track with the goals and strategy of catalytic. These are things that you probably won’t be asked to report, but they will serve to help you recognize the work that you are doing and help you to celebrate catalytic milestones that are not always asked about.
I spent December with the LINC team based in Kiev, Ukraine. I was intrigued in their staff meeting when I saw the team take time to look at an internal tracking system that they had created. The LINC team decided on 2 big objectives this year to help them both stay on track of getting out to the scope and to be building depth in local ministries. They created a spreadsheet that helps them account for their time spent in both areas:
The first one focuses on their Exploring objective and they have goals for how much time to pray for unlaunched locations in new cities each week and how much time they have spent in networking and following up the contacts that have surfaced through networking.
The second internal measurement is focused on the objective of increasing the number of multiplying disciples they have in each Launched location. Here they have weekly goals of praying and distance coaching KVs who they track (or visiting them when they need to). The focus of their prayer and connecting points with KVs is to help them develop disciples who are multiplying.
You may want to consider figuring out what sort of measurements or statistics that would serve your team to help you stay on track with the catalytic strategy. Perhaps you will end up with something that looks like the LINC team’s or perhaps you will find something that works better for your team. Please share with us what you came up with so we all can help one another become better at the ministry that God has placed us in. Don’t forget to celebrate your catalytic successes and learn from your failures as you are finding your joy and worth by abiding in Jesus!
Questions to ponder:
What are your teams’ main objectives this year?
How can you make them ‘measureable’ so that you can know if you are really focusing what you are asking God to do through you?
What can you in order to keep your team on track in pursuing these goals?
Passages to consider:
John 5:1-17
Matthew 6:33
Luke 10:38-42
Revelation 2:2-4
Luke 10:20
Colossians 3:1-2