Sometimes it's hard for us to quantify the work we are doing in the community. Some churches spend countless hours trying to calculate the attendance, involvement and impact of their ministries. People looking in from the outside are sometimes looking for concrete numbers to trace the effectiveness of our ministries. So, without the facts and figures, how do you measure your impact?
Last week, I was sitting at my desk in the Hub, and I had the honor of witnessing the testimony of a changed life. A local police officer had heard of the work Created has been doing in our city and wanted more information to see if some of the officers could work with Created to help the women in our city. As he spoke with Joann, he noted that while the ministry sounded great, if he was going to get his bosses involved, he needed some concrete facts and figures, something to show the effects. Without that information, the staff of Created tried to reinforce the fact that lives were being changed even if wasn't proven on paper. It was proven in the ladies. The officer noted there had some women he hadn't seen in a while, and he hoped the best for them but was concerned that something much worse had happened.
The officer then witnessed something that couldn't be proven through paper, facts or figures. One of the Created ladies came around the corner, and he saw a changed life. He knew her. Well... he knew the old her. And now as he sat in the Created offices, he saw the new her. She began to share her story about finding God's grace and love and how he changed her life. Shortly, after that another one of the ladies came around the corner. He knew them both before, but it was different now. He was listening the story of God's grace, and he could see this new life overflowing from them.
It was proof that couldn't be shown in numbers, charts, brochures or budgets. It was lives changed. At times we may feel discouraged, but we should all be encouraged by the story of a changed life.
-Lindsay
