How do you keep score?

Professionals like to list their accomplishments on their resumes. In fact, LinkedIn is a professional social media platform designed for professionals to continuously update and publicize their list of accomplishments for the world to see.

Artists and other creatives like to develop a portfolio of their masterpieces. The portfolio might be a folder, or it might be website with a photo collage.

Pastors and ministry leaders develop their own means of keeping score. For some, score is the number of filled seats on Sunday morning. For others, it is the number of baptisms in a year. For other leaders, it is the number of books of the Bible preached through, or the number of podcasts recorded, or the number of blog posts written and viewed, or the sales numbers of published books. A lot of leaders create other monuments – successful building projects or churches planted.

Paul certainly could have used many different metrics to rate his incredible ministry success. However, not only was he reluctant to evaluate himself (1 Corinthians 4:1-5), but he put forward a rather strange suggestion for what his own resume or portfolio should be.

“Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:1-3)

Paul’s portfolio is not a collection of artwork or sermons or blog posts or podcasts or book sales or buildings. Paul’s portfolio is people. It is not simply converts, sinner’s prayers prayed, or bodies dunked in water. Paul seems to be talking about a deep, personal investment in the lives of individuals over a long period of time.

“Paul’s portfolio is people. It is not simply converts, sinner’s prayers prayed, or bodies dunked in water. Paul seems to be talking about a deep, personal investment in the lives of individuals over a long period of time.”

Paul’s portfolio is a letter of recommendation, but the letter is written in two places: Paul’s heart and the hearts of his disciples. It is a heart connection – a deep relationship of love between Paul and his disciples. In other words, this letter is not really about showing off Paul’s accomplishments, but about Paul putting the needs of others before himself – investing not in his own advancement and self-promotion, but in the spiritual growth of others.

Furthermore, the letter is not really Paul’s letter. He is not the author. The author is Christ. The words are in the ink of the “Spirit of the Living God.” Paul is merely the delivery boy. Paul is not concerned with recording and publicizing his own accomplishments. He wants to further the work of God in the hearts and lives of human beings.

In the days of celebrity pastors, it can be easy for us to get confused about our ministry goals. We can feel inadequate compared to our author-heroes or our favorite podcasters. But God does not measure us the way we measure ourselves and others.

Ministry is the same as it ever was. By the power of the Spirit and the word of God, we serve others. In humility, we seek their growth, not by developing in others a dependence on us, but by introducing them to the transforming power of Christ and his truth.

We do not keep score. We take the lower seat and invest in the people God brings into our path.

Randall Curtis serves as the Rhode Island regional coordinator for the Baptist Convention of New England.