The Numbers Will Fool You!

Sometimes Christians confuse numbers for health and/or strength. In other words, we often make the assumption that because we have a “large” church we have a strong healthy church. That’s not necessarily true. It could easily mean that two or three generations ago that church was healthy and grew to a point that years later we are able to live off the fruit of the labors of those who came before us. It’s sort of like a trust-fund baby. Just because they have money doesn’t necessarily mean they are still making money nor have healthy finances. Usually they look and act a lot better off than they actually are. Sometimes it takes a while for the money to run out.

Similarly, just because there are many churches in an area doesn’t mean the Church is necessarily strong and healthy. There are areas throughout the “Bible Belt” where there are large clusters of churches. Take for example the areas in and around Florence and Jasper, Alabama (I just happen to be familiar with these two areas). There are A LOT of churches in these two areas. But the plurality of churches there has nothing to do with the health and strength of the Church there. What it does indicate is that at some point in history there was a lot of spiritual strength and growth in the area. And because these were rural areas at that time, there were many people who did not drive. This created a need for more churches. So instead of having fewer churches that were larger, there were a greater number of smaller churches (which made it more likely to have a church in walking distance for you). Now, since there seems to be a church on “every corner”, or literally in every small community, we assume that the Church in that area is strong and healthy.

A closer look sometimes reveals that some of these churches have been dying a slow death over the past two or three generations. Most of these dying churches have a disproportionate number of grey-headed folks – which almost ensures that the death will continue. Where there are “younger” Christians present, it is usually the family members of the grey-headed who have been raised well and are faithful Christians. The problem is that far too many of these churches have not consistently made new disciples for at least two generations. For example, (at my last count a year ago) in the Jasper area there are something in the neighborhood 40 churches. For a county of only 65,000 that seems like a strong and healthy situation for the Church. For comparison, the county I live in, Adams County, IL (population of 67,000) has two. However, what we don’t see on the outside is that with the exception of one, every single one of those forty or so churches is numerically smaller today than it was ten and twenty years ago. Out of all of them, there is only church that is “growing” larger. Where are the people going? Some are dying. Others have moved away have not been replaced. And many others have left the Church.

It’s similar to a Major League Baseball team. For every major league team there is a “farm system” that includes at least six or seven teams that are developing young players. Those young players are being developed and groomed to play in the Big Leagues. When someone on the big league team gets hurt or retires or leaves the team they can just grab a player from their farm system. This works great as long as you are constantly replenishing the farm system by drafting new players who you can develop. The problem with many churches in some of these areas is that they haven’t drafted well or often enough. So even though the numbers are still there, as the Christians leave to claim their reward or are won over by Satan, there are no new Christians to continue the work. And as a result the Church dies a slow death.

How can something that is slowly dying off possibly be considered healthy and strong? Making this determination means we’re either dumb, too ashamed to face the reality and do something about it, don’t care enough to face the reality and do something about it, or too arrogant and self-righteous to see the problem.

How to Make a Church Grow

This is an article written by Keith Brenton.

How to Make a Church Grow.

Don’t try. Okay, that would be my first post shorter than its title, but I’m tempted to leave it at that. Here’s what I mean, though: Don’t make church growth your goal. Make your goal preaching Christ, making disciples, putting people to God’s work with the help of His Holy Spirit. The church that results from that will grow, if the seed finds receptive soil and God gives the growth. Keep watering. Plant more seed; the Word — you know.

Don’t worry about uplifting worship times, awesome praise teams or incredibly gifted worship bands or dynamic speakers or cool videos or  special programs or targeted ministries or awesome marketing or a big, sprawling building or sufficient parking or offering seeker services or traditional services or progressive services. Some of that may come, but fend it off as long as you can.

Tell them about Jesus. Show them Jesus. Win them to Jesus. Demonstrate to them how they are visiting Him in jail; how they are clothing His nakedness and feeding His hunger. When they have worked side by side with each other and with the Spirit, they will want to gather in praise, as often and as devotedly as possible.

People who can see the work of God – the work He is doing through them; in partnership with them – when they see that work in the lives of others … they’ll see it in their own lives too and you won’t be able to shut them up when it comes time for worship. Or any other time. It will well up from within them like a spring of living water. Just stand back and thank God when it happens and you get caught in the spray.

You may not be able to limit them to just meeting on Sundays to worship together. They might just open their hearts and their homes and their dinner tables and their earnings to each other. They might sell their possessions and give to those who have need until no one among them has need anymore.

I know all this sounds too good to be true. I know it sounds like a pipe dream. I know it sounds all but impossible. But it also sounds a lot like the last few verses of Acts 2, and well into Acts 3 and 4. And it also sounds like what Jesus said about nothing being impossible with God (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27).

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate these thoughts. We recently shared this same idea with our Church family. We took it a small step forward though. We have one of those old-school attendance boards at the front of our auditorium. You know, the one that has the attendance and contribution numbers for the past couple of weeks. We would have just taken it completely down. But it’s been up there for a while (probably over 30 years), so I wasn’t sure what was under it or what would happen if I tried to take it down. So we did the next best thing . . . we replaced the attendance numbers with the number one. So now, last weeks’ attendance and today’s attendance reads “1”.

It’s so easy to get caught up in numbers. What does a number mean anyways? Really, it’s just a way to gauge our success and feel good about ourselves. That’s not what we should be about. As a family we’ve determined to be about the next Soul that God sends our way. Jesus would have died for one. So everything we’re going to do, worry over and plan for is the next one that God sends our way. Nothing more, nothing less.

Here’s the way we brought it home. Let’s say that we experience growth that we can notice and feel good about. Slowly the auditorium becomes more and more full. It’s harder to find a parking spot and our favorite seat always seems to be taken by a visitor. That’s terrific! But here’s the problem. While the preacher is applauding the growth from the pulpit and the Elders are feeling good about their leadership, there’s a middle-aged couple sitting in the back whose oldest son left the Church, God and his faith years ago. And after their prayers each night, that Mom cries herself to sleep knowing that her son is lost.

When you put yourselves in their shoes, those great numbers really don’t seem to matter as much. Yes, we will celebrate each success and praise God each step of the way. But we will never forget that Christ came to die for each one of us. And until He returns there will always be another lost son searching for his way home.