How to Measure Chruch "Growth"

In my reading today I came across this article when doing research on the biblical teaching on "self".

I reading that article and the associated Scriptures, I came across this passage. Quite familiar to most of us, but today the Holy Spirit revealed a bit more of the meaning.

Ephesians 4:10-16 ESV
10: He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12: to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
13: until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
14: so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
15: Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16: from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The whole passage is chock full of goodness, but right now, notice verse 13 - "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

See the word "measure"?. Jesus Christ is our measuring stick both as individual believers and corporately as the church. We are are to compare ourselves - to measure ourselves against - the stature of no one or nothing less than Jesus.

Given this truth, I will make this statement :

The church should be measured by how well it reflects the image of Christ - not by the number of butts in seats, numbers "dunked", the who's who of members on the church roll or the dollars given and spent.

We will not attain the full measure of Christ's stature this side of Heaven. Our sole task until that day is be to about the business of conforming ourselves, our families, our churches, our cities, our regions, our nations and our world to the image of Christ using the Gospel methods ordained by Him and enabled, equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8)

Never be bothered by prayer again

I ran across a site today that proves that just because something is technologically possible, it does not make it right.

At InformationAgePrayer.com you can avoid wasting all of that time you spend daily in prayer by subscribing to their automated service for as low as $1.95 per month.

As if that were not enough, you can actually sign up under someone else's name and have prayers offered on their behalf.

I feel such pity for the poor, clueless people who will fall for this scam. Prayer is not a duty forced upon us by a hateful God who wishes to hear us beg. Prayer is a gracious privilege offered to us by a loving God who so desires a relationship with us that He sent His only Son as way to bridge the gap of our sin.

Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, laid down His life and died on the Cross in our place for our sins, was buried, on the third day, rose bodily from the grave, and after 40 days ascended to the right hand of the Father to both make intercession for us and to prepare a place for us to reside with Him in glory forever. ( 1st Corinthians 15 )

Jesus did all of this, so that those who call upon and trust Him as their Lord and Savior might be able to through Him enter into fellowship with God. God desires our heart-felt prayers and sends the Holy Spirit to aid us (Romans 8:26-27).

Perhaps this analogy would help better - I can, with minimal programing - write a program to send an e-mail to my wife every morning at 8:00 AM telling her "I Love you, you are beautiful, have a good day." What is my marriage going to look like if that is the only communication I have with her all day?