I was talking with my friend and associate pastor today about what constitutes success in the church planting world, I told her numbers. Everything I have read tells me that growth, fast growth is a great sign that God is moving in your midst. My pentecostal upbringing tells me numerical growth is a great sign of God’s calling. Hmmm, I guess I am not called and God is not moving because our fellowship is small. We’ve been at this for two years going on three in January and we are no closer to the magic 100 people mark.

This post by Dr. Ryan Bolger discusses how some students in his class thought that the way numbers are used in the church are evil. He, however, did bring up a good point that we can flip the script and use numbers to evaluate how members are living out the theology and mission shared from the pulpit.

However, I still think that most of the church planting world and church world in general is obssessed with numbers. I think for the most part of my first two years I was also. You don’t go into planting thinking that you would be and you don’t want to be but its hard not to be. Preparation for 5 is the same as if you were preparing for 500 because you are hoping for more people to show up. Right?

SO yeah in a way I think numbers are way too important. The funny thing is that those who have 150 start thinking of 300…I get email all the time from church growth experts (pastors who planted and were successful) sharing how to break the next growth barrier. So no one is ever really satisfied with what they got…

I say, the heck with the numbers, I agree with Dr. Bolger if you want to evaluate something, evaluate how many people are walking their talk in your church, evaluate how many people are giving more to help the poor, evaluate how many people get involved in the life of the church and don’t just sit down and complain about all the things they wish the church could provide for them “before” they even think of “giving” time, talent or treasure.

Whoever you are and whatever you are doing for the Lord…just love what you are doing, do it the way you dreamed it in your head even if everyone around you thinks its not “what church looks like” and that you must be totally losing it. As we speak, our small faith community is looking into meeting in a wine club with a stage and living room furniture…definitely not the church many of our Latino community residents would recommend anyone to but heck its not about them is it? It’s funny because we hear this all the time, “wow, your church is great!” “wow, your church is so unique” but they don’t stay…sure it could be alot of things like our music, our theology, my looks, the location but in my gut I think it is something else and I want to share this with you…

 Not many people have the guts to follow their heart and become part of a faith community that doesn’t look like the one their mami or papi went to;

Not many people have the spirit to walk with a community of faith as it learns to blaze their own path, many are more content following a path already tried and tested, who wants to work that hard;

I don’t know where my faith community is heading, I don’t know where we will be in a year, how many will be with us and how many would have left us (already there have been a few who could not hang with us) but this I know for sure…whoever we’ve reached with the gospel story, whomever we have touched with an environment that worships a God that restores and refreshes, those numbers count even if it never is more than what is deemed successful in the eyes of all the folks writing the books.

Remember, Jesus left the 99 for the 1…1 counts.