While it’s very nice to be able to see measurable results like decisions made and church attendance, are these the kinds of goals that we are really after? Jessica and I have seen several examples of folks who made public decisions, came to church, tithed, and did all kinds of other good things… and then turned their back on all of it.

Why?

Part of the reason may be that a lot of what we do in ministry is aimed at changing behavior without ever really addressing the core issues of life. People can hold on to all kinds of destructive passions and sinful attitudes, but as long as they conform to our set of behaviors we don’t usually even notice that anything is wrong until it’s too late. Jesus wants our hearts – all our passion, all our desire, all our love – so why do we tend to measure our success by intellectual assent and ritual performance?

How do you measure love for God, anyway?