Mountaintops and Numbers

In chapter 5 of The New Global Mission by Samuel Escobar writes about the tendency for missions to become about human enterprise defined by numbers.  It made me think about my friend who went on a missions trip to a poor country this past summer where the main focus was an event they were holding hoping to have a large number of people give their lives to Christ on that one night.  It seemed crazy to me to think that people would really think this is effective.  It's easy to jump on the bandwagon and make a decision on a mountaintop experience when everyone else is doing it, but the real test of faith and commitment to Christ comes in the daily choice to die to ourselves and live in Him when the costs are high and the rewards seem minimal.  It would be interesting to see how many of those people who made decisions on that night are still living out their faith today.  Even if they truly wanted to it would be difficult with no guidance or direction of how to do so.