They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan; the one you testified about well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” 27 To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him. 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.” (John 3:26-30, 34, NIV)
One of my mentors, Karl Vaters has often responded to the question, “How do you measure the success of a ministry” with, “What I want to know is, ‘Why do you want to measure ministry success?’ Motivation matters more than results”. Neither can we say, “We’re a small church because we’re doing things the right way, unlike all the bigger churches around us.” Again, I go back to our motivations.
– David’s desire to count people resulted in severe punishment (2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21). – Gideon’s army was purposely reduced, that God may receive more glory (Judges 7).
– Jesus, after feeding the 5,000, minimized the importance of the numbers (John 6:25-26), telling them that they were following for the wrong reasons, and by the end of the chapter, He’s back to his small group of 12! (John 6:66-70).
– In Revelation 2-3, Jesus reserved his harsher criticisms for the larger, more “successful” churches.
I am amazed by the number of times in the Gospels it seems as if Jesus is turning away opportunities for others seemingly seeking to follow Him. To me there are 3 possibilities for this (or a combination of the 3): 1 – Jesus sees their heart motivation; that it is not out of a desire to truly follow Him (John 5:42), 2 – Jesus purposefully wants to keep the crowds down until the opportune time, for Him to be led to the cross at the appointed time (John 7:1-10). And/or 3 – God is working all things according to the counsel of His Will, including choosing those who would follow Him, a remnant in every generation. (John 6:44, 10:26-27, 15:16, Romans 11:5, Ephesians 1:4-6)
I like statistics, but I don’t think there’s any evidence of any true revival coming about by a measuring and assessing ongoing growth. Neither do I think that “getting the numbers up” as the driving factor, led to a healthy church. I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be some keeping track of numbers or attendance, but that it should not be the motivating factor.
One may wish to measure success because God had made them to be numbers-oriented (Neutral). I just don’t want that to turn into an obsession. One may also wish to measure success by numbers because they can rest in that success, effectively becoming “glory-hogs” like David (Negative). I do think it’s feasible, but rare, that one may seek to measure ministry success to that God gets the glory (Positive).
To quote Karl Vaters in “The Grasshopper Myth”, “The second pastor’s church was growing at an alarmingly fast rate, and is a well-known megachurch today. The first pastor, who was telling us this story, was having only modest growth at a church of just a few hundred. . . .“He’d always tell me ‘hey, that’s great! At that size, your church is in the top 15% percent of the churches in the country’, then 12%, then 10% and so on.”
Is it just me or does it concern anyone else that the best way one pastor can think of to encourage another pastor is to put down the other 85% of churches and pastors in the country, then 88%, then 90% and so on? I know that wasn’t his intent, but that’s the implication. You’re better than those other pastor and churches is what he was saying.” He was appealing to the pastor’s vanity, not his faithfulness!
How do we fulfill the Great Commission then (Matthew 28:19-20), if not by numbers? Be found faithful, as His Servant, for God’s sake, in the here and now! As you are an individual person known by God, so you also invest in the lives of individuals, and let God weed out the “tares from the wheat”. (Matthew 13:24-30) Go and tell those around you of the hope that you have in Christ. We have the greatest story of all to tell – The Gospel: Creation, sin, struggle, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and salvation. You are not a statistic; you are part of His-Story, with “a story to tell to the Nations!”