Do the Word

In yesterday’s post we concluded that God despises measurements that draw attention to human strength and power and capacity because they tempt us to base our decisions on human strength and power and capacity.

Those kind of measurements pretty well define the purpose of measurement in traditional/transactional fundraising (ttf).

The most pragmatic (and honest) among us will be quick to protest, ‘But surely you’re not saying we shouldn’t track daily income or the results of a direct mail appeal?’

And you’re right: Surely I’m not saying that. See my census example from yesterday for a bit of clarification.

What I am saying, though, is that what God despises is when we base our decisions on human strength and power and capacity…which is typically why we track daily income and the results of our direct mail appeals in the first place. It’s also why we do wealth screening, why we categorize our donors as regular, middle, and major, and why we choose certain fundraising strategies over others: because they maximize human power, strength, and capacity.

And that’s scripturally problematic.

So what’s the alternative to basing decisions on human strength and power and capacity?

Well, let’s move quickly to assert that it’s definitely not the kind of ‘faith budgeting’ Christian nonprofits do when they stick an extra $300,000 in their income line without any idea where it’s coming from and say, ‘We’re believing for that by faith.’ (For information on budgeting and TG, by the way, check out this previous post.)

The alternative to basing decisions on human strength and power and capacity…is to base decisions on God’s strength and power and capacity as presently evident in your network of champions and partners.

In other words, measure not human activity in human beings but rather divine activity in human beings–the parts of Christ that ‘show through them’ in relation to the cause.

Interestingly, that’s what the scriptures show God measuring:

• Sometimes He measures the absence of divine activity (like in Matthew 23:32, where Jesus challenges, ‘Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!’).
• Sometimes He measures the inhibition of divine activity (like in Hebrews 5:12, where the writer castigates, ‘In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!’).
• But most often scripture shows God measuring His own presence in us.

The perfect illustration of the last point is 2 Peter 1:3-9. Give it a careful read in light of the subject of what we measure:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins [emphasis mine].

Evidence of Christ showing through us in increasing measure: that’s the very reality pointed to by our ‘touchstone’ Transformational Giving passage, Ephesians 4:. Check it out also in relation to the subject of what we measure:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ [emphasis mine].

The typical responses to the proposal that TG should measure divine activity in humans (rather than human activity in humans) are that:

1. God’s activity is not easily detectable or definable
2. Such measurement would by nature be far too subjective
3. The process of measuring divine activity is likely to turn us into legalists because of our subjective measurements and God’s indetectability/indefinability

But do such concerns stand up to scriptural scrutiny? And are there ways for us to detect and measure increases of the kind written about in the quotes from 2 Peter and Ephesians, above?

No to the first question. Yes to the second. Onward to tomorrow for the next installment of Adventures In Measurement!

In yesterday’s post, we talked about God’s love of measurement. So prominent an element of His character is it that Paul even refers to Him as ‘The God of Measure’.

But it would be a dreadful mistake to assume that God loves all measurement. In fact, scripture portrays God as actually despising certain measurements that human beings treasure and on which they rely. In other cases, He prohibits certain measurements from being made at all.

On our way to determining what and how Transformational Giving (TG) should measure, we should stop and take somber, serious account of what it should not.

1. ‘Differing weights and differing measures–the LORD detests them both.’ (Proverbs 20:1)

On the face of it, this scripture seems to provide no challenge to the systems of measurement utilized in traditional/transactional fundraising (ttf). After all, the direct reference of the Proverb is to using one set of weights to measuring what one buys, and a different set of weights to measuring what one sells.

But is ttf truly in the free and clear on this count? Or is it actually irredeemably guilty?

John Wesley’s pithy comment on this verse says simply: ‘Divers – One greater for shew and one lesser for use.’

One greater for show and one lesser for use: Wouldn’t that be a fair description of the different measure we use when we generically address a fund raising letter, ‘Dear Friend and Valued Partner of This Ministry’…but then treat that ‘Partner’ as anything but?

• We might go years without calling them.
• We might know nothing about them other than that they send us money.
• More typically, we might fail to exercise our Ephesians 4:12 responsibilities towards them, seeing them as our supporters and content to accept their gifts, rather than what the Bible calls us to be: supporters of them, equipping them to grow in fullness in relation to the cause we represent.

I always ask executive directors and development personnel: if ‘donors’ heard the way we talk about them in private–if they knew the labels we use for them (regular, middle, major)–and the way we track information about them in our databases, might they not say about us, ‘One greater for shew and one lesser for use’?

Sum it up and say: God detests any measurements that cause us to speak to people one way to their face (‘valued supporter’, ‘partner’) and another in our fund raising reporting (‘regular’, ‘middle’, ‘major’, ‘ripe plum waiting to be picked’, ‘guy with some serious cash’).

2. ‘Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.’ (1 Chronicles 21:1)

What’s wrong with taking a census? In and of itself, nothing. God Himself even directs it from time to time.

The problem comes with the reason for taking a census. When one takes a census in order to measure one’s strength and capacity and health…one runs into a few problems with God, who tends to get rankled anytime one puts one’s strength in what one can see and in what one has in one’s hand…or one’s bank account.

Interesting, isn’t it, that when God talks about a census in Exodus 30:12, He says, ‘When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.’

In other words, every time you count, you need to recognize that each individual is provided by the grace of God. Keeps one from the plague of pride and self-sufficiency…or the plague of despair and faithlessness at not having ‘enough’ to do what God has called one to do.

I am ever amazed at true men and women of God–brave, stalwart firebrands of The Word–who become anything but brave and stalwart when they look at their support accounts or the profit/loss statements for their organization. They continually ‘take a census’…agonizing over the daily income reports, getting frustrated and resentful that people don’t give more, and whoring about for any tool or technique or strategy that will provide an immediate alleviation of an income shortfall. Even their demeanor changes, from peace to passion…to anxiety and anger.

Have you ever considered your own review of your finances as a kind of census? Is it possible that Satan may be inciting you to take your daily ‘census’ in the way you do? What might it mean for you to ‘ransom’ each champion each time you count them?

(Side note: Fascinating, isn’t it, that when David makes the offering that stays the hand of the angel of death, that he does so on the site where the temple is later raised up–the temple, which is one of God’s favorite subjects for measurement?)

3. ‘But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.’ (Revelation 11:2)

Don’t worry–I won’t prophesy a date for the end of the world here. (We’ll save that for the premium subscription version of the blog.)

My point in referencing this verse is simply to note that there are some things that God commands that we exclude from measurement.

What kinds of things?

• Secular things.
• By secular people.
• With secular purposes in mind–purposes that trample on God’s purposes.

Have you ever noticed that the measurements we Christian nonprofits make in our development efforts match completely with the measurements that our secular counterparts track? If we’re tracking the same things they are for the same purposes they are and making the same decisions they do with the same data they have…then is it possible that we, too, are trampling on the purposes of The God of Measure by measuring the things He intends us to exclude and by excluding the things He intends us to measure?

This is of course not to say that you shouldn’t maintain a proper profit and loss statement for your organization. By no means. After all, the problem is not with taking a census. It’s with not following God’s guidelines for what to do when you take a census. The problem is the certain measurements really do tempt us to act and think and rely in ways that aren’t consistent with God’s design for us, His leaders, and for His people.

4. Conclusion

If we pay careful attention, we can see a trend emerging:

God despises measurements that draw attention to human strength and power and capacity because they tempt us to base our decisions on human strength and power and capacity.

Nowhere is that more true–and nowhere is the temptation to do that more acute–than in the arena of fundraising.

If you’re astute, you can almost precisely invert the above statement and predict the kind of measurements God wants us to make and on which He wants us to make our decisions. The surprising thing, though, is the specificity with which the scriptures indicates what those measurements are and how to take them. The measurements scripture directs are literally detailed and practical enough that one can (and is in fact called to) base an entire development program on them.

To these we turn tomorrow.

In the mean time, observe for yourself your own demeanor as you review certain of the measurements you and your organization make. Who is inciting you to measure in such ways? And what might it mean to ransom those statistics in God’s sight?

…and we in regard to the unmeasured things will not boast ourselves, but after the measure of the line that the God of measure did appoint to us — to reach even unto you… (Youngs Literal Translation, 2 Corinthians 10:13)

‘The God of Measure’ is not one of the names Christians typically use for God.

In fact, if you look up 2 Corinthians 10:13 in your NIV or KJV or NASB or Message Bible, you won’t even see the phrase translated that way into English. (The other translations choose to highlight that what Paul appears to be talking about in this section is super-apostles invading the sphere of influence that was divinely measured out to him, namely the Gentiles.)

But for those with an Greek-English Interlinear handy (here, borrow mine), there it is, plain as day in the Greek:

Theos metron. The God of measure.

It makes sense to think of God as the God of measure. Do a search in your concordance and you’ll see that God is quite big on measurements.

Then I looked up—and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand! (Zech. 2:1)

Ezekiel and John (in Revelation) are both sent a-measuring. And whose earnest efforts to read the Bible in a year hasn’t ground to a halt with the looooooooong, mega-detailed sections on measurement of the tabernacle and the temple?

So, God being a big practitioner of measurement, and Transformational Giving (TG) being an effort to exposit the scriptures related to the subject of development (which we take to refer not to fund development but rather to our development into the fullness of Christ), it makes sense that if we’re trying to nail down what we ought to be measuring in TG, we ought to ask the question:

• What does ‘The God of Measure’ measure?

And once we determine that, we ought to ask the follow-up question:

• Ought we to be measuring the same thing?

Which would lead to the truly transformational question:

• What would a Christian nonprofit look like if it was measuring (and seeking to maximize and to base its decisions on) the same things The God of Measure measures?

And that, dear reader, is the subject of our blog posts this week.