“Count the Worshipers!” The New Science of Missiometrics

I n 1896Gustav Warneck made history by becoming, at the University of Halle, the first to receive the title professor of the science of missions. Since then, students of missions have often regarded the whole area of missiology as a science. Indeed it is-in the broad sense of the gathering and systematizing of knowledge. But more often than not, today the term "science" carries a more precise and narrower meaning. Any science, in this contemporary sense, is characterized by the fact that it measures phenomena. As the saying goes, "Science is nothing if it is not metrical"-that is, "involving measurement."! Today we see emerging an approach to missiology that can more accurately be called the science of missions. It applies the contemporary scientific method to the phenomena of missions­ that is, it studies missions in ways that are empirical, quantita­ tive, and metrical. Giving it the name"missiometrics", this essay examines its rationale and function. We begin by examining six scriptural mandates, referencing a variety of English versions of the Bible in order to highlight the metrical nature of the mandates. We are not asserting here that missiometrics has its origin in response to direct scriptural imperatives. Rather, it has arisen out of its demonstrable utility in the work of missions. Neither is anyone suggesting that these mandates are universally applicable over the centuries, or are specific obligations on today's church, still less on every Chris­ tian. Nevertheless, they testify to the place and importance of enumeration, measurement, and calculation in the work ofGod's kingdom. It is clear that there should be some among the churches who are held responsible to take these metrical man­ dates seriously.