Numbers
As I was walking home last night, God impresses upon my heart to think about the issue of numbers in church. I once heard several comments that the church sometimes gets obsessed over number and everyone sort of becomes a statistic. In short, church growth is a number game.
As I think about the issue, God draws me to the following passages:
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
These verses come from the book of Acts, chronicling the growth of the early church. To those who says that church is all about numbers, I have one thing to say. That is I agree with them totally. It is about numbers. And hear me correctly, a church serious for God should be concerned about the numbers. Any church not concerned about numbers is a church suspected of forgetting the divine grace of Jesus. And yet the church is also not about numbers. Why?
Simple, I will put it this way. One soul saved is one soul saved. Two souls saved is two souls saved. 3000 souls saved is 3000 souls saved. See the gist? Today if you are telling me that numbers is not important in the church, you are effectively telling me that you are forgetting that you belong to the one quarter of the world population who profess that they belong to the universal church of Jesus Christ. You are forgetting that you are part of a number of believers who are called into Christ. Look into the bible and you will see that God is concerned about numbers. Just read the OT book, Numbers. Read the gospels. The fact that so many times, exact numbers are recorded shows that God does count His flock. Ultimately, God cannot tell you that the number of apostles appointed is x + y. He cannot tell you that the number of people fed by Jesus was x^y * a^b - z.
And as a church which follows Christ wholeheartedly, we should all the more be concerned about numbers. If there is one visitor in the service, that one visitor is important to God and therefore should be important to us. If there are two, then the two visitors are important. At the end of the day, if we profess we love Christ, our church must grow in quantity cos people will come to know Him as we share His love. Likewise, if the church has a member of 50, then the 50 members are important to God. If the church has 500 members, the 500 members are important. If a church professes to be teaching the word of God, then the church must grow in quality because these people will come to experience God thru the church.
At the end of the day, the world has 6.5 billion people and God loves all of them. You tell me God is not concerned about number? For me, if He is not concerned about numbers, then you are telling me that He is not bothered with how many people come to know Him, even if there is none!!!
Yet, it is not about number. If we are talking about numbers, it is not about growing for the world to see how cool and hip the church is. It is not about making the ministry grow and therefore you are glorious in making the ministry grow. The danger lies in that once we get too obsessed over number, we forget the personal touch of God. God is concerned about the 6.5 billion people and He loves every single one of them, and He wants to have a personal relationship with everyone of them. Yet, in church, we sometimes say 'let's have a faith goal of 10 converts, 20 converts, 30 converts' but once it's achieved, the number just becomes a number. You see, when Hope church celebrates number in the church, eg we celebrate when we reached 4000, we are not celebrating that we have managed to grow into a 4000 large church, but we celebrate that God has added 4000 into His Kingdom. But when we celebrate the 4000 like we celebrate the increase of profit in a secular organisation, then we have a problem.
People, it's really about the numbers. When we enter stats and compile the numbers and church population, that is one way of seeing God's hand in the church. We are part of the number and we need to understand the meaning of this.
As I think about the issue, God draws me to the following passages:
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
These verses come from the book of Acts, chronicling the growth of the early church. To those who says that church is all about numbers, I have one thing to say. That is I agree with them totally. It is about numbers. And hear me correctly, a church serious for God should be concerned about the numbers. Any church not concerned about numbers is a church suspected of forgetting the divine grace of Jesus. And yet the church is also not about numbers. Why?
Simple, I will put it this way. One soul saved is one soul saved. Two souls saved is two souls saved. 3000 souls saved is 3000 souls saved. See the gist? Today if you are telling me that numbers is not important in the church, you are effectively telling me that you are forgetting that you belong to the one quarter of the world population who profess that they belong to the universal church of Jesus Christ. You are forgetting that you are part of a number of believers who are called into Christ. Look into the bible and you will see that God is concerned about numbers. Just read the OT book, Numbers. Read the gospels. The fact that so many times, exact numbers are recorded shows that God does count His flock. Ultimately, God cannot tell you that the number of apostles appointed is x + y. He cannot tell you that the number of people fed by Jesus was x^y * a^b - z.
And as a church which follows Christ wholeheartedly, we should all the more be concerned about numbers. If there is one visitor in the service, that one visitor is important to God and therefore should be important to us. If there are two, then the two visitors are important. At the end of the day, if we profess we love Christ, our church must grow in quantity cos people will come to know Him as we share His love. Likewise, if the church has a member of 50, then the 50 members are important to God. If the church has 500 members, the 500 members are important. If a church professes to be teaching the word of God, then the church must grow in quality because these people will come to experience God thru the church.
At the end of the day, the world has 6.5 billion people and God loves all of them. You tell me God is not concerned about number? For me, if He is not concerned about numbers, then you are telling me that He is not bothered with how many people come to know Him, even if there is none!!!
Yet, it is not about number. If we are talking about numbers, it is not about growing for the world to see how cool and hip the church is. It is not about making the ministry grow and therefore you are glorious in making the ministry grow. The danger lies in that once we get too obsessed over number, we forget the personal touch of God. God is concerned about the 6.5 billion people and He loves every single one of them, and He wants to have a personal relationship with everyone of them. Yet, in church, we sometimes say 'let's have a faith goal of 10 converts, 20 converts, 30 converts' but once it's achieved, the number just becomes a number. You see, when Hope church celebrates number in the church, eg we celebrate when we reached 4000, we are not celebrating that we have managed to grow into a 4000 large church, but we celebrate that God has added 4000 into His Kingdom. But when we celebrate the 4000 like we celebrate the increase of profit in a secular organisation, then we have a problem.
People, it's really about the numbers. When we enter stats and compile the numbers and church population, that is one way of seeing God's hand in the church. We are part of the number and we need to understand the meaning of this.
AMEN! =D
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