There is something to that as we approach the mentality of what it means to be church. As a church we keep score. The difference is that in baseball there are different shorthands for keeping score for each pitch and each batter but they are all keeping score the same way. In church we all keep score differently. The difference of how we approach keeping score is as numerous as the membership. For some, keeping score as a church means sunday attendance, for others it is active membership numbers, others it is sunday school attendance, and for others it is Bible Study, weddings, Baptisms, coffee hour, motorcycle rides, missionaries, and for some it may even be funerals.
What is the scorecard we are using as a church? The point I am making about using a scorecard is that whatever system we are using to keep score as a church we need to get rid of it. (I learned a little bit about this at the Exponential Conference in Orlando). My love for baseball increased as I matured in the game, as I learned more and more about the depth of its intrigue. I think this is true about church as well. We learn to keep score differently when we mature in our discipleship.
Ephesians 4:11-16
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
When we begin to mature in our relationship with Jesus and our relationship with other members of the body of Christ our scorecard changes from numbers to maturity. It is our job to be moved into a deeper and wider relationship with Jesus, so that we might in our maturity develop and equip other saints for ministry. The reproduction of this is as simple and difficult as it sounds but maybe we can simply start by changing how we keep score.