God got very angry with David for taking a census in 2 Samuel 24.  In fact, this single act of disobedience resulted in a plague that destroyed 70,000 people.  The level of punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime.  All David was doing was taking inventory of his kingdom.  But God is about to send a reminder: it wasn’t his kingdom.  These people belonged to God, and David had no business claiming the increase of Israel as his own.  David’s motives had gotten dramatically misaligned.

As leaders, we’ll always be tempted toward an unhealthy preoccupation with quantifying our own success.  Most men find their success in certain numbers from a very early age.  I’ve always been obsessed with certain numbers that I perceived defined my worth.  At age 10 it was my little league baseball team’s record and my batting average.  When I was 15 it was my bench press max.  Today, if I’m not careful, I can wrap my identity and security up in this week’s attendance, the total offering, or my number of Twitter followers.  That’s pretty sad.

If you follow our ministry, I’m sure you’re aware that we are unapologetically concerned about the numbers.  One of the core ministry values within our staff is: We are all about the numbers.

Here’s the distinction: it’s good to be concerned with numbers.  But we’ve got to be concerned about the right numbers…for the right reasons.  We’ve got to make sure we’re measuring ministry numbers to measure our effectiveness and enlarge the Kingdom of God…not simply to placate our ego.

I want to count what counts.  It matters to me how many people show up for a worship experience.  But it also matters to me how many of those same people are plugged into community and embracing Christ centered generosity.  It matters to me how much money we take in.  But it also matters to me how many dollars we are giving back to our community to serve the underserved.  I want my church to grow.  But the day I can’t rejoice at the growth of another Bible preaching church 2 miles down the street with a similar enthusiasm, we have a problem.

Count the right things.  For the right reasons.