I read this article summary this morning...
True Success For A Preacher Is Not Measured By Church Attendance -Agape Press
A well-known evangelist says true success for a preacher is not measured by church attendance. Speaking at the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference in Nashville, evangelist Junior Hill encouraged ministers to be a faithful soldier for Christ, as the Apostle Paul said to Timothy. Hill says pastors should be driven by obedience to God's Word -- not by the latest church growth method. "The truth of the matter is, there are some churches that wouldn't grow if Moses was the pastor and Elijah [was] the educational director," Hill stated. "My dear brothers, I think it's high time that those of us who have enough sense to know better say to these so-called 'church growth experts' who have never pastored a church and wouldn't know one if they met it in the middle of the road: 'We don't judge our men of God on the size of their buildings. We judge them on their faithfulness to stand up as a good soldier.'" Hill said methodology should never contradict or violate scriptural principles.
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I would agree that our goal should be obedience and faithfulness to God and His Word, and our methodologies should reflect that. But I think that it is a false dichotomy to think that if we are faithful that we should be content or justified if our churches don't grow. If our church isn't growing we should in fact be asking very tough questions. My understanding of the kingdom is that God's Kingdom is dynamic, not static. As God builds His Kingdom through His church, it will grow like yeast in bread. We should anticipate growth. How we measure that and what that looks like is another question for another blog entry....
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