Church and Numbers
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...