When Numbers Don't Count--And When They Do

 Tim Challis suggests some better questions to the "How big is your church" question--and he suggests some better ways to answer the "How big is your church" question:

Instead of going to the easy question of, “How many people go to your church?” why don’t we ask things like this:

• How have you seen the Lord working in the lives of the people in your church?
• What evidences of the Lord’s grace has your church experienced in the last few months?
• What are you excited about in your church right now?
• Who are you excited about in your church right now?
• What has the Lord been teaching you?
• Who have you been discipling recently? Tell me about some of the future leaders at your church.

When asked, “How many people go to your church?” why don’t we consider answering something like this:

• As many as the Lord has determined we can care for at this time.
• Enough that we are actively working toward planting a church.
• I don’t know, but let me tell you about a few of them…
• You know, I have chosen not to answer that question, but let me tell you how the Lord is blessing us these days.

I think these are good alternate questions but the alternate answers come across as defensive. I'm not sure we need to be so evasive in answering the question. The Bible writers seemed to find it important to tell us how many were saved on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) or how few were responsive to Jesus in his own hometown (Mark 6:5).

Of course, I think the number in attendance always requires some context before it can be useful to evaluate the church. If you're seeing, say, 120, does that tell the whole story? Are you in Pensacola or Portland...or Paris? Are you 6 months into a church start, and if so, was the start with a core group from another church or from the ground up? Or is the 120 what you have left from an average of 320 2 years ago? If that, was the decline a result of a bad leadership decision or a righteous stand or just because the nearby military base closed? 

Now, this reinforces how unhelpful the "how big" question is, and I'd say that there are many contexts in which idly asking the "how big" question would better be replaced with Challis' alternatives. If you don't have the time or the relationship with another pastor to interact at this depth (say, while making small talk during a conference break), the Challis questions are far better. But if we want to be faithful pastors, and if we want accountability among pastors, we can't just ignore the "how big" question. As we earn the right to interact more deeply with each other, the "how big" question can help us know how to celebrate God's favor with some pastors--and how to pray with others.