Measuring growth, change and progress have always been the sword of Damocles hanging over the head over every small group pastor or volunteer.

The tendency is to think that if we cannot measure it (qualitatively) it does not exist. There is no growth, no change and no progress when we cannot count it or benchmark it against what others have done.

Block proposes asking two different questions: “What is the crossroad I find myself in at this point in my life and work? and “What do we want to create together?” Instead of measuring the past and thinking we are successful, we should be re-creating the future. Block knows that success in the past is, as he calls it, “the gilded cage of today,” a splendid and beautiful prison that blinds our vision and quenches our creativity.

Block asks, as a bonus sort of question, “How will the world be different tomorrow as a result of what we do today?” Such questions are the heart and soul of communal ministry. It helps us shift, as he says, from “What works?” to “What matters?” and from How to Yes. It is the quality of experience we create for ourselves and others—not the results we achieve. I am wrestling with this as you might be as well. So, as Paul, we “press on” while forgetting what lies behind. Learn from the past but do not live in it.

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