KPI.
Key Performance Indicator.
It is a metric that helps organizations measure their progress toward their goals. Almost all effective organizations monitor their KPIs. Any seasoned organizational leader will tell you that this is essential for knowing whether the mission of the organization is being accomplished.
Growing churches and nonprofit organizations also monitor their KPIs. Well-run Christian organizations track their budget, attendance, baptisms, church plants, and commissions. While it’s not far off from profit or market share, they measure, celebrate, and fund their KPIs.
Rightly so, for Jesus gave the Church a clear mandate. This is our inherited mission: to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18–20) and to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We should measure, celebrate, and reinforce work that furthers this mission.
I have heard many Christian leaders emphasize the directive given to us: to grow the church as quickly as possible, save as many people as possible, baptize (or rebaptize) as many people as possible, disciple as many people as possible, plant as many churches as possible, and send as many people as possible. Nothing that I write from this point forward refutes the mission of the Church. I believe churches are right to measure their mission.
Growing churches and nonprofit organizations also monitor their KPIs. While it may not be profit or market share, it’s not too far off. Well-run Christian organizations track their budget, attendance, baptisms, church plants, and commissionings. They measure, celebrate, and fund these KPIs.
Rightly so, for Jesus gave the Church its clear mandate. This is our inherited mission: to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18–20) and to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We should measure, celebrate, and reinforce work that furthers this mission.
I have heard many Christian leaders emphasize the directive given to us: to grow the church as quickly as possible, save as many people as possible, baptize (or rebaptize) as many people as possible, disciple as many people as possible, plant as many churches as possible, and send as many people as possible.
Nothing that I write from this point forward refutes the mission of the Church. I believe churches are right to measure their mission.
However, it is a danger to become focused on KPIs, ROIs, and metrics. That problem becomes evident when we look at the ministries of Jonah and Noah.
The Case of Jonah
Most of us know the story of Jonah, the reluctant prophet. He despised the people he was called to reach. In fact, he actively ran away from his calling. When he was literally forced to go to the mission field of Nineveh, he reluctantly conducted a preaching ministry that lasted three days—three days!—where he proclaimed, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4). His ministry was not marked by earnest prayer, genuine compassion, or joyful obedience.
Yet God sovereignly gave him fruit. “The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them” (Jonah 3:5). This was not a small group of people filling out interest cards, but a massive revival. Upwards of 120,000 people were impacted by Jonah’s ministry (Jonah 4:11).
We know that Jonah did not have compassion for the people because we are told, “It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” (Jonah 4:1).
What a strange case: the preacher did not want to see the people saved—and got angry when they were.
The Case of Noah
If there’s an opposite case study, it would be Noah—the ineffective preacher. He was given a mission in Genesis 6:13–14: “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.”
Noah received his calling when he was 500 years old (Genesis 5:32). The floodwaters came when he was 600 years old (Genesis 7:6). This means that for nearly 100 years—100 years!—Noah and his family were engaged in ministry and the work of ark-building.
Noah’s church, if you will, consisted of him, his wife, his three sons, and presumably his three daughters-in-law. Zero baptisms, zero conversions, zero growth, zero commissions. He is called “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5), but his preaching certainly did not yield any tangible fruit.
Just the same eight people, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. That was the church.
What Pleased God
120,000 saved in three days.
Zero saved in one hundred years.
That’s what our KPIs would reveal.
But God measures differently. In Hebrews 11, God reveals how he measures.
- “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice…” (Hebrews 11:4)
- “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death…” (Hebrews 11:5)
- “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive…” (Hebrews 11:11)
- “By faith Abraham offered up Isaac…” (Hebrews 11:17)
- “By faith Isaac invoked future blessings…” (Hebrews 11:20)
- “By faith Jacob blessed each of the sons of Joseph…” (Hebrews 11:21)
- “By faith Joseph made mention of the exodus of the Israelites…” (Hebrews 11:22)
- “By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter…” (Hebrews 11:24)
And so the list continues—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and more (Hebrews 11:32).
Included in this list is Noah: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Hebrews 11:7).
Noah is not listed as having saved or baptized countless numbers of people. He is not celebrated for having planted many churches. He is not made famous by the number of people he discipled and commissioned.
What is Noah celebrated for? By faith, Noah obeyed God.
His obedience was not the result of an extensive report by a consultant, a field study by strategists, or consensus building by venture capitalists. He was obedient to the words of God.
Our Leanings
If we were organizing a Christian conference, I wonder whom we would invite to speak.
The bio at jonahtheprophet.com would read something like: “Revivalist with a track record of turning around a city of 120,000 people in three days of anointed preaching. A sought-after speaker, bestselling author (Saving Ninevah), board member of influential ministries, and leadership coach to other revivalists.”
The bio for Noah would be hard to find. He wouldn’t have a large digital footprint. Was he a gifted preacher? Probably not. Was he an effective leader, church planter, or growth strategist? Certainly not.
What was Noah known for? He was known for obeying God—no more and no less.
Our Calling
So how do we reconcile the mission of the Church with the ministry of Noah?
It’s not difficult: The mission of the Church is still the mission of the Church. It is right for missiologists, evangelists, church planters, and pastors to keep an eye on that mission.
But it is also right for us to ask, “Am I being obedient to God’s calling?” God calls some to be Jonah. He calls others to be Noah. After all, God gives different callings to different people to accomplish the same mission (1 Corinthians 3:5–9).
Perhaps our measure should not be KPI, but KFI—Key Faith Indicator. What is God calling me to do? Am I being obedient to His calling?
No more, no less.
Steve S. Chang
President | SOLA Network