I was recently working on year end reports. It is not something that I typically look forward too. For a small business owner, closing the books for the year, and preparing tax forms can be a daunting task. As a parish priest there are also reports to be made. When I was a younger man, I was always a bit chagrined at the number crunching mentality that seemed to drive these reports. My idealistic piety, would cry out in rebellion, "it's not about numbers, its about people." I'm a bit older now, wiser, and perhaps more honest, about the real reasons we pastors sometimes hate number crunching and reporting. I say "sometimes," because not all pastors hate such tasks, their numbers are good. The real reason we hate number crunching is because our numbers are not good. The pietistic arguement is just a smoke screen to hide that fact, and we know it. And, we are just insecure enough to take it personally-- that monkey on your back doesn't get any lighter.
Now granted, numbers do not necessarily give an accurate assesment of the fruitfulness or success or our ministries. (funny how nobody with good numbers likes that statement:) However they do tell us something true. We as men of God, called to shepherd his people, need to quit making excuses and manfully accept that truth. Sure every church has ups and downs periods of growth, and decline, but extended periods of neither is not "natural."
My point here is not to drag you down. After all, need I say it? I'm one of us. Christ Community is a small parish. It has been so far too long. Let me just say I have as many "good" reasons as anyone. "I'm bi-vocational, I don't have time, we don't have enough money, we are in an economically depressed area, our culture is 'anti-catholic' " and the list goes on. My point is to encourage us to take a brutally honest look at what we are doing. Keep the good. Keep what works and consider seriously the value of what is not working. Above all, I want to bolster your faith. We are here doing what we are doing for one reason: God wants to save people. He takes no delight in the death of the wicked, but wishes that all would come to repentance. He wants us to succeed! He really loves the people of this world, the people of your neighborhood, and wants them to know it and come to him. We are instruments he has chosen to accomplish this. He has commissioned us to make disciples of Jesus. This, friends, is the task at hand. Don't get side tracked by trying to make your numbers look better. Some of us plant, some of us water, but God brings the increase. Know who you are. Understand and accept how God has gifted you for the task he has given you and let's get to work. Let us keep our minds and hearts focused on the task at hand.
