Well, we are one week beyond Commitment Sunday. Earlier we sent letters to our parishioners inviting them to renew their commitment to God and to their fellow parishioners, our Covenant Community.

We still await a number of Commitment Cards. We want to give everyone an opportunity to join with us. We do not want to remove anyone from our membership list by accident, or oversight. We will wait until the end of November before we clean up the parish roster.

In the meantime we have begun our “faith audit” of the parish. We are looking at three expressions of faith in our assessment of the quality of faith in our covenant community:

1. Commitment to love God as expressed in worship.

2. Commitment to love Neighbor, in the willingness to the support of one’s fellow parishioners in a Shepherd Group.

3. Commitment to support material demands of real ministry through a financial pledge.

Here is a provisional summary of our “faith audit” as it applies to parishioner commitment to the love of God.

212 committed to worship weekly.

41 committed to worship two times a month.

11 committed to worship once a month.

21 chose not to make a commitment to worship.

An assessment of this kind requires context for the numbers to have any meaning. Looking at an historical trend would be helpful.

Unfortunately, this is the first time our parish has asked for and received an expression of intentional commitment to worship.

I am looking forward next year to see a comparison of this year’s number with next year’s number. It would give us some indication of how effective we have been in our discipleship ministry. My assumption, obviously, is that growth as a faithful disciple of Jesus will find expression in a commitment to love God expressed in worship.

Another context for assessment of these numbers is to consider them in terms of the parish roster. Currently our parish database reports a membership of 1,899 people. This includes adults and children.

Impressive number. Impressive, that is, until one measures the parish roster against the number of those willing to make an intentional public commitment. If the parish roster is accurate, this suggests a rather low quality of faith in the parish.

A critical review of the parish roster, however, suggests the parish roster may be inflated. This gives rise to the question: What constitutes parish membership?

My practice as a responsible administrator is to maintain a parish roster that gives us a rather more accurate list of people who have made a genuine commitment to God and to their fellow parishioners. At the end of 2006 I will direct the staff to clarify the parish roster to reflect the life of the parish as it is expressed in our parishioner’s commitment to be a faithful Covenant Community.

Once the parish roster is adjusted to reflect our actual census, the roster will provide a better context by which to assess the quality of the faith of our parish.

Yet another context by which to assess the numbers of those committed to worship is in light of our average attendance in worship on Sunday. Currently our average worship attendance is 490/week.

(This includes both children and adults. The number we captured on our Commitment Cards reflect only adult commitments.) Assume 100 children in church on any given Sunday, this gives us an adult average worship attendance of 390.

This suggests that on any given Sunday, out of 390 adults gathered, 212 of them are committed to love God as guided by Scripture, through Sabbath keeping. Thus, roughly 55% of people gathered model commitment. Another 11% are people of significant commitment.

Another 2% or 3% recognize the value of tending to the things of God in at least an intentional way.

What does all this mean? Well, if 100% of our parishioners were “Sabbath Keepers,” it would suggest that we were an exclusive, closed society not open to reaching out to seekers, strugglers, and those still exploring the power of faith.

Likewise, that 55% are committed to keeping Sabbath, suggests that our parish is in a position to shape its culture along a trajectory of growing faith, rather than to have to struggle to maintain faith against a parish culture that merely reflects the world around it.

I am encouraged by our faith audit. But then, I am not surprised. I find that the “mood” of the parish tends to project genuine faith. If is affirming to see hard numbers that justify this impression.