New Metrics

Last week, Tim Ball the youth pastor at Promised Land West invited me to a talk George Barna gave to their staff. Barna, talked to them about his research into how churches can determine how they are 'transforming' lives. I re-payed Tim's kindness by showing up late and he re-payed my tardiness by killing me at fooseball afterward.

The information presented was provocative and held tremendous implications for the way churches in America do ministry and evaluate the success of their efforts. Here are some questions I came away pondering:

• How do we really tell if the people we serve are living 'transformed' lives?
• What are the stops along the journey of transformation that a Christ follower passes on his/her journey toward maturity?
• How can pastors better create atmospheres for peoples lives to experience transformation?

Ideas?