Great thoughts from a local pastor.

My sister-in-law recently graduated from one of the top medical schools in the country. It has achieved that status not by being the biggest, but because of the quality of students it turns out and the number treatment-breakthroughs that are discovered there.

Similarly, our churches (or Bible studies, or worship teams, or whatever other ministry-effort we're leading) should not be evaluated by their size, but on what is happening in the lives of those who are there.

Here are a few other parallels that have crossed my mind:

1. Most med-schools also have hospitals attached. What a great picture of church! Everyone is welcome... nobody is shamed or turned away. However, entrance into the hospital does not guarantee entrance into the attached med-school. At our church, what we're looking for in people who would aspire to ministry leadership are servant-heartedness (my spell-check doesn't know that word), teachability (a desire to learn things that I don't already know), accountability (a desire to be linked up with others in a growth-process), and repentance (an eagerness to have my thinking changed by God).
2. We have more "students" than "doctors" and the learners are the ones doing the hands-on work. While patients at med-school hospitals might prefer to have full-fledged doctors doing the surgeries, often students are involved in the process. At church, it's the same. Our pastoral team and Delta leaders' jobs are not to do the ministry directly, but to mobilize and connect people who are learning how to pray and counsel with those who need it (all of us). Interestingly, studies have shown that (despite patients' nervousness) the care at med-school hospitals is better than at non-teaching hospitals.
3. For patients, healing is the goal. Everybody hopes that a trip the hospital is brief! Some treatments can take time, but every patient should aspire to wholeness. The point of coming to the hospital is to be healed so that we can get on with our lives. Sometimes church can seem like an endless cycle of going into the hospital! Instead, let's all set our sights on fruitful ministry (getting off the sick-bed and into the white gown and stethescope).
4. For students, each day is lived with graduation day in mind. The point of this school is not just to build a bigger and bigger school and hospital... but to SEND out these students into the wide world where they are needed. I am asking God to give me big dreams for those who call our church home... and the wisdom to equip them for what God is asking them to do. And I want to get better at planning a church-program that will love, mend, train, and send people in a period of a few years.

It's helpful to spend time thinking about what we're trying to do with this thing called "church." Without proactive thought, we'll end up just doing stuff out of tradition or routine. Neither will get us to our objective ("Go therefore and make disciples...").