Tyrannical Digits (A few words on attendance)
We live in a numbers obsessed society. If you spend any amount of time on the internet, then you are daily inundated with numbers. We evaluate the things we have, the places we go, the events we attend, and the organizations we participate in by numbers.
- When you check your facebook you are greeted with a little red number to show you how many notifications you have.
- When you pump your gas, you see the numbers. There are numbers displaying both the filling of your tank and the emptying of your wallet.
- When you gather together with your family many states and municipalities have imposed limits on the number of people which can safely gather.
- When you shop for goods and services, it's the number that often drives your decision about making a transaction.
We quantify nearly everything in life with numbers. We in the church are just as guilty of counting by the numbers as the rest of the world. We count the number of attendees in bible study, prayer meetings, and worship services. The success of a concert, sporting event, or conference is most often discussed in relationship to numbers. Are numbers the means of evaluating the Lord's work among his people?
We can use numerical evaluations both to exaggerate the importance of something, or excuse the importance of something. While too often the emphasis is simply on the eye test for measuring large gatherings, there can be a "reverse spirituality" in other contexts for small gatherings. In these situations the verse "where two or three are gathered in my name"(Matthew 18:20) is quoted in reference to measuring numbers within the body of Christ. The logic goes something like this...."are there two or more people in attendance? Great!" While there is nothing wrong with smaller gatherings, the emphasis shouldn't be placed on the "two or three" part, but rather on the purpose of the gathering. It's gathering "in [Christ's] name" that is the foundational truth that makes the gathering distinct and important.
A gathering of 10,000 believers and a gather of 2 believers both ought to share this truth: God's people gathered together for his name sake is a source of pleasure for God. The gathering isn't evaluated on the number of people who "bought a ticket" or "sat in a pew" or "came through the door". If God was merely about the business of filling as many seats with butts as possible, then he would not be a god worth worshipping for a moment. That God would be a colossal failure! The god of Butts-In-Seats is not the holy creator who made the sun, moon, and stars.
A cheap and easy measure
So often numbers are relied on as an expression of the quality of something. More of something is better is the general thought. More people in bible study, more people in worship, more kids involved, all these "mores" are good things, right? Evaluation by numbers is certainly one way of approaching assessment of an event, program, or ministry. But does that mean it's the right means of evaluation?
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| John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) Saul Reproved by Samuel |
In 1 Samuel 15, King Saul fought against the Amalekites (the same named group as who attacked Israel in Exodus 17 and the Lord swore to utterly destroy one day). These Amalekites were the ancestors of Haman the enemy of the Jews and Esther and Mordecai. Saul won a military victory during the battle, but he did not obey the specifics of God in regards to how the battle was to be concluded. Saul appealed to numbers to excuse his disobedience. He appealed to the prophet Samuel that he and the people saved many of the Amalekites herds for sacrifice (worship). Samuel and the Lord saw this as a cheap and easy excuse. Regardless of Saul's intentions, Saul didn't follow through with God's Word on the matter. This leads Samuel to exclaim to Saul:
"Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." (1 Samuel 15:22 NIV)
Saul's refusal to obey God would cost him his position as king. Saul's misunderstanding of value had put him in a position to believe the lie that the things the world valued were the things God valued. The world values in so many ways numbers and seeks validation in numbers. Yet God doesn't need validation, nor do the numbers of people praising him change his eternal being.
This puts us in an awkward position in discussing the success or failure of Christian endeavors. You may be saying at this point "Jacob, that sounds very nice and spiritual, but how can we Christian leaders measure an event, or gathering without using numbers?"
Heavenly Theft?
God is not robbed by "low" numbers, nor is God glorified through "big" numbers. God is rightly exalted through individuals and groups who worship in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23-24). We see time and time again throughout the Old and New Testaments God at work in relationships between two people, in families (large and small), in nations, in regions, in empires, and throughout the whole world!
We shouldn't get bogged down or discouraged by attendance of events. Nor should we become confident and proud by attendance of events. Large attendance isn't unto itself an indicator of God's blessing or faith driven, love empowered people. Small attendance isn't unto itself an indicator of God's displeasure. God blesses his people in large gatherings with thousands (Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, John 6:1-15, Acts 2:40-41) and God blesses his people in small gatherings of only a few (Luke 24:13-35, John 20:24-29, Acts 9:10-19).
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| József Molnár: The March of Abraham |
If not numbers, then what?
Numbers certainly are one way to evaluate the happenings of a local church, but my point here today is two fold: A) to discourage the wrongful and abusive use of numbers in assessments and B) to encourage us to consider MORE than just numbers when evaluating the happenings of a local church.
Let's consider two evaluative approaches that Jesus and the New Testament church used:
- Fruit
- Suffering
1. Fruit
When Jesus spoke about evaluating teachers, he spoke regarding evaluating their byproducts (their fruits).
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit." (Matthew 7:15-18 ESV)
How are false prophets recognized? By what they produce! Sometimes false teachers produce LARGE followings, sometimes they produce smaller followings. Here we see that we ought not to judge the truth, validity, or blessing of God in the number of followers. Rather we ought to evaluate and inspect the fruit of teachers to witness whether or not God is at work. Rather using the "eye test" to evaluate a gathering, use the fruits of the Spirit as an evaluative metric.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV)
Did the event challenge you to love your neighbors? Did the event remind you of the Joy you possess in Christ? Did the gathering stir within you a sense of peace that you cannot find anywhere else? Did the gathering point to ways in which you can persevere through trials and hardship? Did the gathering provide you with opportunities to show kindness to your neighbors? Were you encouraged to do good works? Was your faith built up? How was gentleness manifested or pursued? Was self-control or indulgence praised?
2. Suffering
The early church suffered much. Whether it was the beatings (Peter and John before the Sanhedrin Acts 5:40, Paul and Silas at the hand of the crowd 16:22-23), the martyrdoms (John the Baptist by Herod Mark 6:27, Stephen by the crowd Acts 7:54-60, James by Herod 12:1-2) or the imprisonment (John the Baptist Luke 3:20, Saul against the church in Acts 8:3, Paul against the crowd in Acts 22) in all these ways and more the church suffered.
When the early church saw themselves suffering, they had a way of thinking about it. They saw suffering as a byproduct of witnessing Christ. They preached, lived, worshipped, and shared with others about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and that often brought suffering. Imagine if you next Sunday at worship an extra 3,000 people became Christians and joined your community of worship. Would that require you to sacrifice your favorite seat? Your favorite parking spot? What about the next church potluck? That's a TON of extra lasagna to make! This is exactly the scenario of the early church at Pentecost in Acts 2. There would have been a ton of suffering in getting to know and beginning to love a great many new faces in the community. And that's on top of external sources of suffering that are trying to hurt the community.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:2-3 NIV)
James (the brother of Jesus) wrote through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to count trials as a joy. Suffering is a Christian, New Testament approved method of evaluation. Rather that using the "eye test", ask some of the following:
- Is the gathering of believers helping to comfort those who are suffering?
- Is the gathering of believers seeking to understand why we are suffering?
- Is the gathering of believers being grown to persevere through the suffering?
- Is the gathering of believers praying actively and earnestly for the salvation of those causing the suffering?
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