Stop the body count

http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/ministry/evangelism/ministry_casualties_of_body_counts/

[sydneyanglicans.net] 9 June 2009--In Vietnam, the US army used body counts to show it was winning the war. Measuring progress was difficult but the body count made it simple. The public quickly doubted the veracity and usefulness of these figures.

In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, US General Tommy Franks famously said, ‘We don’t do body counts.’ Maybe they were worried about bad publicity, maybe they had learned lessons about how to assess progress.

Churches do body counts. The most common description of a church is its size. How else could you measure progress? The body count is simple. More people are coming last year than this year - that’s got to be a win doesn’t it?

Here are some of the problems about measuring success by attendance