If you're a pastor or church leader, you have inevitably attended a conference or meeting with other pastors or church leaders. What is the most popular question overheard at such gatherings? "So, how many people are coming to your church?" Every time I hear it that question, it makes me sick.
Tagged on to the question is a grading scale that is not really taught in a seminary class or a leadership conference, but that we tend to believe and ascribe to intrinsically. If you're under 100, you're losing and if you're over 1000, you're doing great. If you're over 3000, you're off the charts.
What a sad definition of success.
60% of the people who live within a 20 minute drive of our current meeting location do not attend church. That means the total number is roughly around 162,000. If we have 500 people involved in our church, we would be considered a moderately successful church in church circles. But are we really?
It's irrelevant for churches to compare themselves to other churches. I've done it in the past. Churches are different, communities are different, people are different, strengths are different, and strategies are different.
A growing church of 250 in a community of 1200 is doing great! A plateaued church of 3000 in a city of 4 million has some work to do.
Rather than asking, "How are we doing compared to _____________ Church," ask, "How are we doing relative to our mission, our community, and our strengths?"
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