Making It Personal

This past week I was preparing some statements for the "State of the Church Address" a part of our annual Society Meeting at the church.

When I began to review some of the numbers from the 2013 year I was encouraged by many, and I was discouraged by a few. You see, 2012 was an exceptional year in our church - we saw numerical growth in almost every area and every ministry, and we experienced significant relational and spiritual growth as well.

But as I looked at  the reports from 2013 I felt differently. One particular area was baptisms. We were blessed to baptize 15 individuals in 2012 - 5 adults,6 teens, and 4 children. However in 2013 we only baptized 3 - 1 adult, 1 teen, and 1 child.

15 baptisms versus 3 baptisms, these numbers spoke for themselves. Or did they? See, it only took me a minute to realize that one of these three baptisms was my 7 year-old daughter. And, it occurred to me that numbers are discouraging, but only when we are not giving it our all. And that numbers no longer matter when it is personal.

This is not to say that I don't desire to see many more hearts and lives committed to Christ and that I don't desire to see many more baptisms in 2014. This is simply to say that I will aim to make every commitment, every life, every baptism personal. And I will rejoice - I will celebrate with each as if it is my own son or daughter that is making this life-changing commitment.