In my four-plus decades of ministry I’ve attended a lot of church leadership conferences. In almost all of them, the message was church growth. How to get bigger. But they seldom, if ever, addressed why we should get bigger.
Then I started to notice a common thread.
For most church growth advocates, their why was that setting a numerical goal was a great motivator. They were highly driven to see a numerical increase year-over-year. Because numerical goal-setting motivated them, they assumed it was similarly motivational for the rest of us.
But it isn’t. Not for most of us.
The pastors who are motivated by the push to get bigger year-over-year are vastly outnumbered by the pastors who are discouraged by it. For most of us, the demand to get bigger is an unbearable burden, not an adrenalizing drive.
We may not have started out that way. For many, maybe most pastors, the drive for church growth started as invigorating. But after a few years, it got frustrating. Finally, it became debilitating.
Adrenaline Isn’t Enough
For the majority of pastors who don’t see the expected rise in numbers, the reason for the stress is fairly obvious. We start out being driven to succeed, with an adrenaline rush that gets us out of bed every morning. But, after years of striving, the adrenaline wears out.
Soon, the lack of numerical increase creates more frustration than invigoration. Eventually, the push for bigger becomes debilitating. Either it takes you out of ministry entirely, or you’re just going through the motions.
And even for the churches that do see numerical increase, the chase for numbers takes you along the same emotional path. Adrenaline is short-lived. When you have to top yourself year after year it leads to the same inevitable, debilitating end.
So, how do we avoid the trap of pursuing numbers so relentlessly that it goes from invigorating to debilitating? Here are two essential principles:
Principle 1: Disconnect Your Value From Your Numbers
In De-sizing the Church, I wrote, “You are not your numbers. Neither is the church your serve.”
We know this. But do we really know this? Not like we should.
The pastor of a church of 3,000 is given more credibility than a pastor of 300. And they’re given way more credibility than a pastor of a church of 30. It shouldn’t be that way. But we know it is that way. Room, meet elephant.
We all want validation—to know that what we’re doing matters. And a lot of that validation comes from other people, especially from our peers. So, when numbers bring validation, we seek more numbers.
But seeking validation through numbers has two dangers. First, it’s measuring the wrong things—numbers don’t determine a person’s value. Second, it causes us to devalue the things that actually do matter.
We have to stop valuing pastors, churches, and people by the numbers they produce—starting with the person we see in our mirror.
Principle 2: Reconnect Your Value To What Really Matters
So, if the value of our church, our ministry, and our lives isn’t connected to numbers, what’s left?
We know the answer to this already. It’s no mystery. Or, it shouldn’t be.
Get back to some simple biblical principles. That we are valuable to God, not because of what we’ve done, or might do, but because we are made in his image.
Pastors, you need to re-affirm for yourself what you’ve certainly told your church members—that faithfulness in the little things matters more than success in the big things.
Unlike the adrenaline of number-chasing that constantly demands to be fed, but always leaves us feeling empty, anchoring our value in faithfulness to Jesus will never run dry.
(Photo by Marco Nürnberger | Flickr)
