The Numbers Game

It's amazing to me that many churches today count their success by their numbers. The Rick Warrenites do this a lot in their Purpose Driven Churches that fail to be Bible Driven. Butts in pews seem to have replaced souls in heaven these days.

The idea that the pulpits need to "always preach a positive message" is ridiculous. The gospel is a positive message, however there are negative things that need to be said. Sin is negative. The need that we have to repent is negative. Discussion of both of these items is necessary, otherwise how do you convince someone to be saved if they don't know what they ave being saved from?

Numbers are not a sign of God's blessing. Just because a church is in a fast growing community does not mean the will of God is not being done in a non-growing community. Noah, Abraham and Jeremiah would both be failures if God wanted to play the numbers game.

You grow a church by teaching and showing the Gospel message in your life. Not by preaching growth. Too many times we think we are growing the kingdom by stealing sheep from other churches and just reshuffling the deck. God wants growth from the unchurched, the de-churched, and the un-repentant.

I don't recall Paul telling any of the churches to get their numbers up to be a blessed church. Some things are a lot more important than the numbers.