I have found that in having an on-line presence, it is easy to get caught up in a numbers game. How many followers do I have? How may hits have there been on the blog? What is my blog ranking?
In our connected world, we have what seems like an infinite supply of data at our disposal. There are scores and rankings for every aspect of social media and the blogosphere.
With all the information available, it is easy to get overwhelmed and become distracted from the original purpose for having an on-line presence. Not only can I become overwhelmed and distracted, I can waste a lot of time comparing myself with others.
My purpose in having an on-line presence is to encourage people to begin and then deepen their relationship with God. To stay true to that purpose, I came up with 6 reminders to keep me from being consumed by an unprofitable focus on numbers.
- I am not doing this to build a personal following. I am doing this to bring honor to Jesus Christ. See 1 Corinthians 10:31.
- When I compare myself to others, I am distracted from my mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ, not disciples of me. See Matthew 28:19-20
- I am called to please God and be in obedience to him and not be concerned with pleasing men. See 1 Thessalonians 2:4. By seeking to please men, I may compromise what God wants me to write.
- I must focus on providing worthwhile content rather than trying to manipulate people into a response. See 1 Corinthians 2:2-5
- I must be animated by a love of God and a genuine agape love of other people. Without that love, I’m just making noise. See 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. My efforts must be for the benefit of others and not for my own.
- My goal is to bring people into spiritual maturity, but maturity is hard to quantify. The numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Rather than being distracted by the numbers, I need to be still before God (Psalm 46:10) and listen for his voice in the midst of the noise around me.
What do you think? Care to add to the list?
Jeff Goins says
May 18, 2011 at 12:41 PMGreat post, Mark. It’s a great piece of accountability for us all.
Scott Kelly says
May 5, 2011 at 12:31 PMReading this calls my attention to the parable of the talents (Matt 25:14-30). In effect, Jesus says that we are each given a set of opportunities in life and will be held accountable for how we respond to them. If I have a realm of influence over 10 people and you have a group of 100, the real “numbers game” is what percentage of our heart is dedicated to reflecting Christ toward them. The parable demonstrates that the man with 5 talents and the man with 2 were both deemed “good and faithful servants” because they invested what God gave them. They did not necessarily strive to get more. Our faithfulness with what “few things” God gives us in this life will be rewarded with being “ruler over many things” in the next.
In a temporal sense, our servanthood isn’t acurately quantifiable anyway because we cannot see the extent of the fruit it bears. Who knows how many people read what you write and are not comfortable “following” or commenting on it? Furthermore, most people I feel are within my direct realm of influence don’t read much of anything, especially online. It seems that verbal interaction is a better way to get a sense of what effect we are having.
Also, I personally have to remind myself that one man plants and someone else waters, but GOD gives the increase. I can’t get caught up in the results business lest I give the enemy a foothold to attack my ego.
Mark McIntyre says
May 6, 2011 at 6:26 AMThanks for the thoughtful comment. Good point that we won’t know the full extent of our impact until we get to Heaven. I suppose we can boil it down to tuning our ears to hear what the Master is telling us to do and then doing it.