May 05, 2014
Taking a Tally
Our church attendance
was down a little yesterday, but I was surprised at my reaction. For the first
time ever, the numbers didn’t mean anything to me one way or the other. They
weren’t a measurement of spiritual health, evangelism, or even a vibrant
fellowship. I didn’t mentally factor in excuses for weather conditions,
vacations, or illnesses. I suppose the detached feelings may be partially
attributed to recent studies on cross-cultural evangelism. Globally speaking, I
can’t imagine God using numbers as a measuring rod for Body of Christ. I’m now
wondering how God views the church’s preoccupation in validating themselves
with numbers. Paul said, “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with
some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and
compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise” (2 Cor 10:12 NIV).
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Gail;
-----I’m suspecting that you get it more than you realize. Numbers are not unimportant. If your fellowship desires a dedicated facility in which to meet and worship, then there must be a certain number of folks committed to it. Even though we object to any idea of interest in numbers, while we build up a fellowship everybody committed to it does take a brief tally in the back of their minds hoping to find the numbers approaching sufficiency for facilitating its needs.
-----I don’ believe there is everything wrong with that. I do believe attention to numbers has right and left boundaries, like every highway has a right and left barrow pit. There is a proper amount of management necessary for any good fellowship. Otherwise the Lord would not have given us elders. Management involves a process of analytical review for avoiding barrow pits. Analytical review must examine both of the two types of considerations descriptive of anything: qualitative and quantitative. Neither rules out the other by its own nature. Which one is important depends upon what’s being reviewed and why. But if quantitative review never enters the analysis, the management process is incomplete.
-----Now, don’t take me as saying the elder’s work is to manage, craft, and define the fellowship. That is a right barrow pit sickness that over-considers what a fellowship should be and under-considers whether it has become good by the Bible‘s definition of good fellowship. So the elder’s management is to maintain a Biblical perspective in the ideas and activities and facilities interacting within a fellowship. Seeing that the pool of people from which any fellowship draws its participants contains a blended mix of people falsely and genuinely searching for the Lord, mere numbers will not indicate the Biblical quality of a fellowship’s substance. Many fellowships have very false “qualities” and very prolific numbers (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Scientology, etc.) Any fellowship expecting to review qualitative aspects of its messages and nuances by the quantity of people it draws begs for trouble in a barrow pit. But the fellowship whose elder’s are genuine searchers of God’s knowledge, understanding, and wisdom will qualitatively review the fellowship’s messages for their Biblical perspectives and quantitatively review it’s attendance for proper amounts of supplies and facilities and efficient usage.
-----So, I’m thinking preoccupations with numbers will get spewed out of His mouth along with the ignoring of numbers. I can even see one occupation with numbers God might Himself have. He searches all things to a minuteness of intricacy we can only imagine, if we can at that. Each soul having ever lived will be known by Him to that intricately detailed level throughout its life. All of that intimate knowledge and empathy for it makes its additional tally of one to the number of names in His Book of Life horrendously giant because of all the intricate, eternal joys it will perceive, as does it make the tally of one to those missing from that Book extremely sad. God feels and knows numbers like we can not imagine.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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