Purpose Driven
I don't get it. What's the deal with the 40 Days of Purpose? I've even read the book and it was far from life changing. I learned nothing new from it. It rehashed and repackaged many things that I had learned from my church when I was in junior high.

It's a program geared to bring people into churches. In fact the above site gives numerical data as the support for the effectiveness of this program. Why do we want programs that bring numerical growth? Is this the only measurement for success the modern evangelical church has available?

I hope it's not the only measurement for success God has. If it is, then most of God's most gifted and anointed preachers and leaders did a rather poor job.

I am also troubled with what happens to so many people once the special event is done. Will they come back? Do they return? Do they enter into a community of faith?

Formulas of success for pastors and churches make me sick. Unfortunately I think many emerging/postmodern churches are prone to create formulas and models for success, at least currently. Perhaps in the future, our culture's orientation will be so different that we no longer look for formulas. What will it be that we look for? Authenticity? Honesty? Relationship? Faithfulness?

Perhaps the most important question is, what does God look for? How does God define success? I bet it differs significantly from many of our answers.