Asking Better Questions

So how many people go to your church?” That’s a question just about every pastor faces at just about every conference he attends. It usually doesn’t take long for a conversation to progress to that point. For the pastor this can be a moment of great pride or great humility, great freedom or great shame. 

Regardless, it is a question that always seems to come up. And it comes up for those who are not pastors as well; you begin to talk about your church and your friend inevitably asks that same question.

Today I’d like to make a two-part proposal: Let’s stop asking, “How many people go to your church?” And when someone asks us that question, let’s stop providing a direct answer.

We all pay lip service to the reality that we cannot necessarily measure the health of a church by its size. We all know that some of the biggest churches in the world are also some of the worst churches in the world. After all, the history of the church has long-since shown that it is not all that difficult to fill a building with unbelievers by just tickling their ears with what they want to hear. 

We also know that the Lord is sovereign and that he determines how big each church should be and we know that in some areas even a very small church is an absolute triumph of light over darkness. And yet “How big is your church?” is one of the first questions we ask.  Continue at Tim Challies