[225 words]
The follow-up question I always get when people hear I am a minster is the “how big” question. “How big is your congregation,” and, “How many kids are in your youth group?” I guess that is the way they measure success. The assumption is that the more folks, the better things are going.
Yet that isn’t true. Just because the house is full doesn’t mean the assembly is productive, united, or informed. Many church groups are like the large crowd that gathered in Ephesus in Acts 19:32, “Some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together.”
Rather than just viewing numbers, we need to look at success as we see it defined in Scripture. In Romans 15:5-6 we read, “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The number we should be most concerned with is one. One hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God.
Whether a church is made up of five, fifty, or five hundred people, when they become one then they will be successful.
Barry Haynes
Hope church of Christ
Hope, AR