Numbers Represent People?

I was in a conversation recently about what it means to be a healthy church. The conversation quickly changed when it became clear the metrics the person was using to determine a healthy church were all based on numbers (“how many people are coming to your church?” “how much money is given?”, etc). As the conversation headed down this road I became terribly disinterested. Sensing that I was checking out of the conversation the person I was talking with told me that, “Numbers are important because numbers represent people”.

Their statement didn’t lengthen the conversation any (I wasn’t interested in a justification for cold numerical statistics). But the statement did get me thinking.

“Do numbers represent people?” “Is that a reason to gauge the success of a ministry by the numbers?” Hmmm….

On one hand it can seem that numbers are important (think about a situation in which there is some sort of tragedy; the number of those rescued matters greatly). However I don’t sense that one’s participation at a Sunday church service is a matter of life and death (people can attend church without a commitment to kingdom living). Further if numbers matter, then often churches will do all sorts of things to simply get more numbers to their events. In doing so, churches set aside their prophetic call in this world and end up feeding the same things this world offers (autonomous individualism and consumerism).

So, do “Numbers represent people?” I don’t think so. Numbers are nothing but cold statistics meant to categorize people on the slide-rule of easy management.

But people…people cannot be confined to the statistics of numbers. People are living breathing organisms, made in the image of the Creator. They have joys, hurts, hopes, fears, talents, flaws, gifts, skeletons, hang-ups, and character traits that are as unique as the colors of life. Numbers cannot tell these stories.

What do you think of the phrase: “Numbers represent people?”
How have you seen church communities operate in unhealthy ways because they were “number driven?”

"Is Your Church Growing?"

I can't think of another question that makes me shrivel quite like this one: "Is your church growing?"

The question doesn't bother me because I am somehow unconcerned with the development of people and communities, it bothers me because of what often lingers beneath the surface of this question.

Somewhere over the course of church development in the Western world we have made it our primary responsibility to be growth focused. Some would argue that this is a good thing because "numbers represent people, and people represent souls." Yet this question is one that is poorly framed because it places our focus on the results, and further, what we should do to attain those results.

When our focus is misplaced on results it can lead to churches doing "whatever it takes" to get people to come to their church. This mode of operation leads to Churches that exist to give "customers" what they want.

Perhaps instead of asking the question: "Is your church growing?" or "How do I make my church grow more?" we should be asking: "What are we doing with what we've been given?" Our focus as church communities should be on stewardship while allowing God to be in charge with directing the results. Yes, stewardship involves being aware of results/growth trends, however it does not base its posture or dictate its mode of operation on simply achieving "high marks".

Stewardship reflects an obedience to God's directive in our life and in the life of our church. This kind of obedience does not always reflect the kind of growth trends that one would equate to as "successful"...sometimes in calling people to follow after Jesus and his kingdom the crowd thins.

Listen to these words of Barry Black: "Remember, Noah preached for 120 years and was only able to convince seven people to go into the ark with him. And yet he was successful, I believe, because he was faithful."