Dr Paul Allen

Two interesting posts on NUMBERS this week.  One from Chuck Lawless, and one from Justin Taylor. Which do you tend to side with? Here’s a little of both:Justin Taylor quotes J. I. Packer:  I have found that churches, pastors, seminaries, and parachurch agencies throughout North America are mostly playing the numbers game—that is, defining success in terms of numbers of heads counted or added to those that were there before. Church-growth theorists, evangelists, pastors, missionaries, news reporters, and others all speak as if (1) the numerical increase is what matters most; (2) the numerical increase will surely come if our techniques and procedures are right; (3) the numerical increase validates ministries as nothing else does; (4) the numerical increase must be everyone’s main goal. I detect four unhappy consequences of this. First, big and growing churches are viewed as far more significant than others. Second, parachurch specialists who pull in large...

We live in a day in which understatement is an endangered species. We have no shortage of embellishment and exaggeration. Public communication is awash in grandiose claims. Parties, events, releases, political rallies must be bigger and better than the last. In our society of hype and hyperbole, pomp and posturing, we create our own online profiles in a matter of minutes, select our most flattering photo, highlight our most impressive accomplishments, and then fill our timeline with the confirming data. We are experiencing (not to overstate it) an epidemic of over-promising and under-performing. Few of us have the humility to report on our lives and experiences with simplicity and truth. Sadly, we Christians too often fall prey to this cultural pressure.  This Sunday , this conference, this study, this message must be more “epic” (talk about exaggeration) than the last. Such a penchant is perhaps especially acute in church planting and other ministry startups, when our co...