Heart Accounting

And I pray that you may grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge. Ephesians 3:17-19

Lostology Law #15

Love pays whatever the search costs.

The potluck stands central in church life today. Denominations may argue about an array of doctrinal concerns, but we stand in amazing unity on the issue of potlucks. Potlucks are good.

The problem is, potlucks are boring. Face it. There is a limit to how creative you can be with a potluck. The goals are too simplistic: assemble the maximum amount of food, eat the maximum amount of food, leave the maximum amount of food behind for the hostess.

Creative churchgoers at some point in Christian history developed a variation of the potluck called the progressive potluck. All basic goals of the traditional potluck remain intact. Only now, it is possible to eat even more because short periods of digestion are imposed as the potluckers troop from house to house.

Progressive potlucks can be dangerous. Few rules are written, and most groups learn what does and does not work through trial and error. One foundational rule stands tested through the centuries: preschoolers should never be part of a progressive potluck. One small group in our church dared to defy this ancient guideline.

Act One

These young adults had an odd gene assortment that predetermined their children would be less than five years old and female. My wife and I, along with our two daughters, joined the group in a fool's adventure: progressive potluck a la preschoolers. By stop number two, the folly of our choice was evident.

In a desperate bid to buy time, three of us volunteered to take the group of nine little girls for a walk. Our logic was adequate: herd them around the block, use up energy, then stall for time until the next home. Out the door we headed, herding the preschool girls like a parade of crickets. Three adults, nine preschoolers. You'd think that was an adequate ratio. Wrong!

The preschoolers, sensing an opportunity, immediately used the old "divide and conquer" strategy. All ran and scattered:

One girl, the youngest, immediately tripped, crashed, and burned. First aid pulled one adult off the pursuit.

Three preschoolers thundered down the sidewalk, a long steady hill that accelerated their speed until their chubby legs blurred with motion. Their exodus and the corresponding chase occupied another adult.

Three of the girls followed the others down the hill but slowly fell behind then veered toward the street. I focused on them, yelling for them to get back on the sidewalk while doing my best to shield them from oncoming traffic.

The remaining girls orbited among the other groups according to a mystic social gravitational pull or until they ventured within grabbing distance of one of the adults.

As responsible adults, we quickly realized we were out of control. Calmly, we faced the facts. There was little chance we were going to return with all nine girls.

Act Two

Stop the scene. For the sake of the story, let's say we returned with only seven girls. Surely a 77.7 percent return should be acceptable considering the challenge we faced. We could have calmly explained to the parents what had happened, pointing out the fact that although we were not sure where two of their daughters were, we were confident they had ended up somewhere in the neighborhood.

So as not to hinder the ongoing progression of the potluck, we could have suggested that we focus on the seven girls we had in hand rather than placing inappropriate emphasis on the two preschoolers who were missing. The neighborhood was good. Chances of the girls ending up with a good family were way above average.

Absurd? Certainly. When it comes to lost children, logic ends. Forget calculations. Drop the concept of "acceptable losses." With missing children, we do not add on our fingers; we add in our hearts.

Touching Your Heart

Most evenings I hate to watch the news. The relentless parade of tragedy numbs the senses. How do you respond to the stories? To the pictures?

• accounts of children killed or hurt
• stories about babies who are sick or malnourished
• pictures of teenagers who are homeless or abused

Standing in the icy flood of information, do you sense yourself slipping into emotional deadness? Do you begin to listen to facts without seeing real faces? It is easy to do, even understandable. Easy, but not right.

We know intellectually that the children in those stories are real people. The statistics cited refer to someone's children . . . just like our own, like our nieces, nephews or grandchildren. Of course, if those reports referred to our families, we would view the broadcast differently--the report would crush our hearts.

When it comes to people, we cannot view losses objectively, dispassionately, like a cost accountant studying a balance sheet. With people, we choose instead to assess every loss and evaluate appropriate responses through an accounting of the heart. Our hearts lead us to Lostology Law #15. We search because our hearts leave us no option.

Unacceptable Loss

Let's focus again on Jesus' story about the shepherd who had one hundred sheep. One evening, upon counting his flock, he discovered that he had ninety-nine sheep in the fold and one sheep missing in the field. As a good shepherd, he left the ninety-nine who were found to search for the one that was lost.

From a business standpoint, such a move was ludicrous. Imagine an accountant's response upon hearing about the shepherd's decision: "I can't believe you did that!" the accountant would say. "Forget the one. Focus on the ninety-nine. One missing sheep is an acceptable loss. Write it off on your taxes. That's just the price of doing business."

Such a view is appropriate if you view life from the bottom line up. But the shepherd worked from a different perspective. His actions sprang from an accounting of the heart. No matter how many sheep were in the fold, he could not rest as long as one was missing. One missing Sheep was an unacceptable loss in his heart.

How fortunate for us that our heavenly Father has the heart of the shepherd and not the heart of the cost accountant. In 2 Peter 3:9, the apostle Peter wrote, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

God could have easily considered any of us as an acceptable loss. But He didn't. He couldn't. His heart called for a different view of the bottom line.

Evaluating the Bottom Line

During the weeks that followed the first service of our new church in Portland, I got to know the people who came as a result of our outreach project. As we got acquainted, they shared their stories. Most came as a result of some sort of need in their lives. They needed something and were looking for answers. They brought their fears, but carried hope as well.

Initially, none of them knew about the search and rescue operation launched on their behalf. They did not know how many people had worked and sacrificed or how much money had been spent to reach them. Was it worth it?

A cost accountant would have given an answer easily. He would have worked out the averages and determined the cost per attender ratio for our new church. The cost ratio was staggering. As an objective evaluator, the cost accountant could have easily said, "This project wasn't worth the cost."

If you talked to the people who found our church and who ultimately found Christ, they would have given a different answer. Was it worth it? To them, yes, without question. Their evaluation would have been based on an accounting of the heart.

What assessment would you make? The answer you give depends on the accounting system you use.

Good Stewardship of the Heart

In churches today there is a need for financial accountability, for good stewardship. Limited resources cannot, however, become the primary reason for cutting back the search activities of the church.

Looking only at the budget, we will never find a good time to launch a search effort. It will always be too expensive; the results will always be too small. If we are not careful, we can slip into a cost accounting mode and focus on the ninety-nine in the fold rather than the one that is lost. Of course, in most churches today, the numbers are opposite--it's the one in the fold and the ninety-nine who are lost. It is imperative that we make the right choice as we contemplate a search.

Tough-Minded Love

Making wise choices about the use of resources will always be a struggle. There are always more good things that need to be done than we can do. Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus' disciples questioned Him for allowing a woman to anoint His head with expensive perfume. "This perfume could have been sold for a high price," they said, "and the money given to the poor." In Matthew 26:10-13, Jesus stunned His disciples with His response: "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

Was Jesus demeaning the value of helping the poor? Of course not. He was preparing His disciples to make tough stewardship decisions that defied simplistic solutions. Priorities compete with one another, especially when those priorities call for financial resources. The decisions hinge on alternatives. Jesus affirmed the woman's choice to anoint Him rather than help the poor. He made the tough call about what was most important at that time. Jesus' disciples disagreed with Him. So it will be as we struggle to make decisions in the face of profound spiritual needs. Here are some criteria to consider as we seek God's direction in how we use the resources He has entrusted to us:

Window of Opportunity: We may have a unique opportunity to reach the lost now that may not be ours in the future.

Immediate Accountability: We should determine how the proposed expenditure for evangelism compares to the funds we are already spending on those who are in the church. It is easy to indulge ourselves while ignoring the lost.

Spiritual Values: Our decision about the proposed expenditure will say something about our values as individuals and as a church. We must determine if our values toward reaching the lost are consistent with those Jesus demonstrated.

Ultimate Accountability. If we choose not to spend funds on outreach, we will use those funds in other ways. No matter what we decide, we must be prepared to account to God for how we invested the resources He entrusted to us.

Even with a commitment to heart accounting, our decisions will never be easy. God's standard of accounting must be out starting point. We must embrace the struggle love creates in our hearts. Driven by love and seeking only to please God, we know God will give us wisdom when decisions must be made. Above all else, we must be willing to pay whatever a search costs.

The Lostology Lab

1. If you had been with the shepherd the night he left the ninety-nine in the fold to look for one lost sheep in the field, what would you have told him? Would you have affirmed his decision? Why or why not?
2. The term acceptable loss is used to refer to a level of loss that is appropriate or unavoidable in a particular endeavor. The shepherd in Jesus' story could have decided to count the one missing sheep as an acceptable loss and stayed with the ninety-nine. If that was the story, what would the message of such a parable be? What would be the implication of that parable for evangelism?
3. In what ways do churches and individuals live as if Jesus' parable told of a shepherd who did not worry about the one missing sheep and who chose to stay with the ninety-nine sheep in the fold?
4. Second Peter 3:9 says God does not want anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. How does this standard impact our tendency to become dispassionate about the masses of people around us who are spiritually lost?
5. In your church, which system of accounting (cost accounting or heart accounting) drives the decisions made about evangelism and outreach? What statements and decisions reveal the accounting system being used?
6. In your personal life, what system of accounting drives the decisions you make about the money you give to support evangelism and missions in your church? What statements or decisions do you make that reveal the accounting system you use?

Coming Next: All the Way to the Top

Even if our hearts tell us to search, other priorities attempt to elbow their way to the top of our list of activities. Only as clear thinking lostologists can we keep our priorities straight. Our priorities flow from a basic law of lostology--the topic of our next study.