Rethinking the Church | Character Over Performance

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7 (NRSVUE)

When Samuel was looking for Israel's next king, he was impressed by the tall, handsome candidates. But God reminded him that divine evaluation works differently from human assessment. God looks at the heart, not the external appearance. The same principle applies when we're measuring spiritual health—God cares more about our character than our performance.

We live in a culture obsessed with metrics, numbers, and measurable outcomes. We track everything from social media followers to quarterly profits to fitness goals. This mindset often carries over into how we think about church and spiritual life. We count attendance, measure budgets, compare programs, and evaluate success based on growth charts and statistics.

But God's evaluation system is radically different. He's not impressed by the size of our church buildings or the number of people who attend our services. He's not measuring our success by our social media engagement or our financial statements. God is looking at whether we're becoming more like Jesus.

This means that a small church where people are genuinely growing in love and faithfulness might be healthier in God's eyes than a large church where people attend but aren't being transformed. It means that someone who quietly demonstrates patience and kindness in their daily life might be more spiritually mature than someone who can quote a ton of Bible verses but lacks basic compassion.

Character development takes time and often happens in ways that aren't immediately visible. Someone might be making significant progress in overcoming a struggle with anger, but the only evidence is that they're slightly more patient than they were last year. Another person might be growing in generosity, but the only sign is that they're more willing to help others, even when it's inconvenient.

These kinds of changes don't show up in church reports or make for impressive testimonies, but they're exactly what God is looking for. He's more interested in the person who's slowly learning to forgive than the person who can preach eloquently about forgiveness. He's more concerned with the person who consistently shows up for others than the person who can organize spectacular events.

This should encourage us when we feel like our growth is slow or invisible. God sees the small steps, the daily choices, the gradual changes that no one else notices. He values the quiet transformation that happens when we consistently choose love over selfishness, patience over irritation, kindness over indifference.

The question isn't whether we're performing at a high level for others to see. The question is whether we're allowing God to transform our hearts and character to be more like Jesus.

Prayer: God, thank you for seeing beyond our external performance to our hearts. Help us focus on character development rather than trying to impress others with our spiritual accomplishments. Work in our hearts to produce the kind of genuine transformation that reflects your love. Give us patience with the process of growth, knowing that you see and value every small step we take toward becoming more like Jesus. Amen.