Fearless Faith

Various metrics all point in the same general direction when it comes to measuring the evolution of the church. For years we depended on membership rolls, bodies in the pews, irrevocable declarations of a saving nature (or so it seemed at the time), numbers of activities offered each week, who threw the best funeral dinners, and the ever-popular cars in the parking lot informal weekly census, fair game for any church, church member or stranger in town for that matter.

The desire to best others can be irritating, especially while entertaining pastoral staff and administrators at continuing educ...