Ministry

I am in Singapore at Campus Crusade for Christ’s measurements conference. This is about 20 leaders from every area of the world who are working together to create and implement a measurement system.

My boss, and the Vice President of Operations Roger Bruehl, shared his heart with us yesterday as we opened this week together. He pointed out that measurements are important to God. Some of his thoughts:

• There is an entire book in the Bible called Numbers.
• Twice the Bible records huge feedings. But it doesn’t just say that a crowd was fed. It records 4,000 were fed and 5,000 were fed.
• There are 14 times in the book of Acts where a report was given.

I remember something I heard from another Campus Crusade leader in the Middle East. He was addressing the issue of measurements, counting, and reporting. He said, “We in Campus Crusade count people because people count to God.”

Roger asked us to break up into small groups and answer two questions.

Why are measurements important to God?

Our group had these thoughts:

• We are encouraged when we see growth. God already knows. Counting is for us.
• Measurements bring clarity. Measurements require us to be specific and precise. What should be included in the count? What should not be included in the count?
• They provide a testimony to future generations. They document the works of God for the next generation.
• Counting shows us the personal nature of God. He sees people as individuals, not just a crowd. He knows the number of hairs on our heads, not just the color of our hair or lack of hair!

I especially liked the thought that counting shows us the personal nature of God. That is powerful! He doesn’t just see us as a group — as Christians, as a local church, as Campus Crusade for Christ. He sees each of us individually. He knows me as an individual.

Why are measurements important to helping us in Campus Crusade accomplish our mission?

Some of our thoughts:

• They help us determine and use fruitful methods.
• They help us separate results from activity.
• They build our faith to trust God more when we document what is doing.
• They help us be effective stewards of the donations God entrusts us with.

I’m looking forward to more today!

Did you visit our BeyondTheUltimate.org Superbowl evangelistic website? If not, I encourage you to listen to the stories of Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith.

Did you show someone the fullpage newspaper ad? Did you forward my email to anyone? If so, then you may be among those who contributed to this exciting result. [NOTE: These are not the final numbers, but they are exciting numbers!]

Stats (as of Tuesday, 6 February)

• Total site visits – 176,249
• Visitors who indicated that they received Christ – 934
• Visitors who moved on to a followup site – 510
• Visitors who went to a special email page where they could request more information – 958

How People Found the Site

• 122,333 – typed BeyondTheUltimate.org into their computer
• 24,294 – in an email they received, they clicked on www.beyondtheultimate.org, which was included in the email
• 7,536 – typed in a search phrase on Google and clicked on our ads
• 4,210 – typed in a search phrase on Google, Yahoo, etc. and clicked the link, shown in the search
• 17,876 – were visiting other Web sites and clicked on a link to www.beyondtheultimate.org

Wxxx in Orlando visited the site. He was interested in learning to share his faith. He had some questions about science and the Bible. Wxxx’s questions came to me. I serve as an email mentor helping people with their questions.

I’ve written to Wxxx. I hope he will write back.

My colleague Rob alerted me to this plan:

French authorities plan on passing out open-source software to incoming high school freshman next year. The software expected to include Firefox and Thunderbird as well as an office suite; instant messaging software and an audio video player will be put on a USB flash drive and passed out to students at the beginning of the school year. The USB drive will give students the ability to check email and surf the web with personal preferences without purchasing each child their own personal laptop.

We distributed a very similar solution at Pamoja! Glad to see others thinking similar thoughts. Our goal is not just to distribute software, but to increase communication and collaboration. We added headphones and a nice bag. Plus training and technical support.

Our finance leader in southern Africa wrote this week to tell me it is working. He needed some banking information from one of the countries in his area. He saw one of our Pamoja trainees online using his new Skype skills. So he used text chat to ask for the banking information he needed to help flow funds to the country. We’re building operational capacity, one step at a time, enabling better communication.

I’ve been quoted in a podcast! This reminds me how important it is to be sure I know what I’m saying! I’m sure glad I said it reasonably well and it was quoted accurately!

God is using the internet to further his kingdom worldwide.

It’s fun to see some of the early ideas from over a decade ago blossom and flourish around the world.

An exciting thing for me about being a part of Campus Crusade for Christ is our enthusiastic embracing of every opportunity to introduce people to Christ. This weekend, a full-page SuperBowl Ad will appear in the USA Today newspaper. The coaches of the two teams (Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears) are very committed Christians and the ad will point people to a special website where they can read their stories and get a clear presentation of the gospel. Please be praying for the impact of this unique outreach which was done by Athletes in Action, the athletic ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Check out the evangelistic website Beyond the Ultimate.

You can download a PDF file of the ad. Click here.

Athletes in Action will also host their 20th annual Superbowl Breakfast, which is an NFL-sanctioned event.