The Necessity (and Danger) of Measuring Spiritual Fitness

Many Christians busy themselves with church-related activities that don’t necessarily help them get in better spiritual shape. Week after week, they show up at gatherings, attend small groups, and serve in ministries. Some do it out of habit, and others duty. Many do it for a long time and burn out.

One of the reasons for burn out is that we don’t connect our activity with any kind of measurable outcome or achievement. We begin to ask: is what I’m doing making any difference in the world? the church? or in myself? How many people have wandered away from church because they’re lost in the haze of fuzzy expectations and lack of measurable progress? How many have given up because churches lack mechanisms to motivate them the to keep growing?

There is a need for a better way of measuring what happens in churches. I’m not the first to point this out. Most churches focus on two key measurements: nickels and noses. They measure how many people show up and how much money they give. Most churches focus on these things not because they believe they’re the most important things to measure, but because they are the easiest things to count.

Healthy churches place a priority on other measurements beyond nickels and noses. They measure the number of people serving in ministries, the number of small groups, and the number of meals served to the homeless. It can be done. It just requires more effort and imagination. While some churches are doing a better job of measuring what they do as group, a huge gap remains in the area of measuring personal transformation.

What we need are some agreed upon areas of personal growth that can be clearly defined and measured so that progress toward Christlikeness can be tracked and celebrated.

One of the difficulties of comparing physical and spiritual fitness is that it harder to find tangible measurements for spiritual fitness than it is for physical fitness. The numbers may not lie when measuring physical fitness, but is it even possible, much less appropriate, to measure spiritual fitness?

My suggestion that we attempt to do so will undoubtedly be resisted by some Christians fearing that bringing measurement into the realm of spiritual growth will lead to legalism. Their fears are well-founded. Many Christians live in constant tension with legalism–the human tendency to turn the spiritual life into a list of rules to be obeyed. This can all go bad in a hurry if measuring our spiritual growth becomes rule-keeping in order to make sure God doesn’t stop loving us.

Another danger of measurement turned rule-keeping is that it becomes an opportunity to demonstrate our supremacy over our neighbors. Inevitably, some will do a better job of keeping the rules than others. This leads to arrogance on the part of the rule-keepers and despair on the part of the rule-breakers. This is potent, toxic stuff that has done much harm throughout the history of Christianity, so we have to tread carefully when we talk about measuring spiritual growth.

The solution isn’t to avoid measurement altogether. In an effort to avoid legalism, many churches have allowed spiritual growth to become a private, and therefore unaccountable, Christian practice. These churches celebrate their lack of legalism, and rightly so. But a lack of legalism shouldn’t be confused with personal transformation.

Measuring spiritual growth can certainly put us in danger of becoming self-righteous. At the same time, refusing to measure anything but nickels and noses puts us in danger of self-deception. It’s easy to believe we’re doing better than we really are when all we wear is our favorite pair of stretchy pants.

Conversely, self-deception can also lead some to believe they’re worse off than they really are. Without measuring some tangible progress, there are some Christians who who will never believe that the gospel has the power to elevate them beyond their self-described worm-like state.

I don’t have this figured out yet, but I’m on quest to find a way of measuring our growth as followers of Christ that gives us an honest appraisal of our strengths and weaknesses. One that lets the hard chargers celebrate victories without becoming arrogant, while also helping those lacking confidence build the momentum they need to blast off from the gravity of self-loathing.

Question: How can we measure spiritual fitness without becoming self-righteous or being overwhelmed with self-condemnation?