by Josh Duncan
I get asked this question all the time... "So how many people attend your church?" Often times, people are just curious how things are going, and they know this is a normal question to ask about churches. After all, success in American church is measured by things such as how many people are attending, how much money people are giving, how many people have prayed to receive Christ, etc. These things are easy to count and easy to measure; therefore, people refer to these things when determining the success (or struggles) of a church.
I too tend to measure success (or failure) by these things. I've felt the pressure for several years in various ministry settings to measure success by what I could count. In my first two opportunities as a youth pastor, our ministries saw numerical growth in attendance, salvations, baptisms, etc. All the typical, measurable, numerical things went up. We even had some students who starting giving consistently as teenagers!
Then, God allowed me to enter the American culture of church planting. We busted out of the gates with great marks numerically. Attendance was great, and we were seeing some people make professions of faith. People were even giving at a decent rate.
However, things haven't stayed this way... partially because of the mistakes we made even before we started having services, which then continued after our launch, but also because God's been preparing us for a specific vision. Honestly, right now, we're running about 60-70 in attendance, which is actually slightly lower than where we were at this point last year. God has allowed me to experience seasons of "apparent" failure as a leader, and the devil has tried to capitalize on my selfish desires to measure success by the cultural norms as he's attacked me, frustrated me, and sought to destroy my self-esteem.
Nevertheless, through this, I'm learning the real heart of Jesus...It's people. It's making disciples. It's NOT the numbers. I've learned that God often times must take certain things away in order for us to see what matters most.
Are you doing this as an individual?
Do you find yourself counting the money in your bank account, the number of people you supervise, the square footage of your house, or the number of degrees on your wall as measurements of your success? If you're a follower of Jesus, please don't forget, we're each called to be a disciple who makes disciples. This is what truly counts. I pray God's Spirit realign our passion with His passion!
Are we doing this as The Overflow?
I believe God has us at a point where we must sell out to what He says matters most. I do think we're moving in that direction, but honestly, only time will tell if we truly get it. Attendance may go up or down. Giving may go up or down. People may say they've prayed to receive Christ, but only if we're making disciples, will our church grow and multiply as God wants. At the end of the day, this is all I want for our church.... to see people living in the power of a relationship with Jesus and surrendered to the Holy Spirit.
Look, I've heard it all before. People say things like... "We count people because people count." Hey, I used to even say this myself. The truth is, all of the people who say things like this have plenty of people and things to count. But what about when there's not that much to count?...
You have to change or realign your scorecard. Even if you have plenty of people and things to count, you must be sure your ultimate scorecard is aligned with that of Jesus, which asks, "Are we making disciples?" As a leader, you must ask... Are we moving in a direction that will show people what it means to follow Jesus by listening to Him and obeying what He says throughout the rhythms of life? Are we urging people to then introduce others to what it means to follow Jesus? This is all Jesus cares about. Here's why...
-Hundreds or even thousands can attend our "churches" each week to hear our music and sermons, but we may not be making a single disciple.
-People may give extreme amounts of money to our churches, but their giving may simply be a substitute for having an authentic relationship with Jesus.
-Hundreds may pray to receive Christ, but only time will tell if they're true disciples who've genuinely responded to the gospel of Jesus.
I've come to realize Jesus called me into a season, a life-long journey, of learning how to make disciples, not planting churches. Actually, He's called me to come to grips with what it means to be a disciple myself. So I''m now understanding that making disciples is all that matters, and this is ultimately what we must measure.
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