Numbers are PEOPLE!

Here is a great post from Paul Peterson, who got some of it from Perry Noble (talk about six degrees of separation :-) )

For people that say, “God isn’t into numbers”, check this out from the book of Acts....

• Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

• Acts 2:47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

• Acts 4:4 But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

• Acts 5:14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

• Acts 6:1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

• Acts 6:7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

• Acts 11:21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

• Acts 11:24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

• Acts 14:1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.

• Acts 14:21 They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch,

• Acts 17:4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.

• Acts 17:12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

• Acts 17:34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

• Acts 19:18-20 ¹⁸ Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. ¹⁹ A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. {19 A drachma was a silver coin worth about a day’s wages.} ²⁰ In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

The bottom line… when God is at work the result is numbers! Numbers of radically changed lives! I want to be a part of that! I want to be a part of a movement where thousands are coming to Christ! Church, God cares about numbers because numbers have names!

(HT: Paul Peterson)

Here are some of my thoughts....

When the church is passionate about people becoming Christ followers and crossing over from darkness to light and having their lives radically turned upside down - that translates into numbers. We should be passionate about numbers, because like Paul Peterson said, numbers are people, numbers have names. Not all people like the idea of the church talking about NUMBERS. I think the blow back we get because of numbers comes because of several reasons:

1. When people talk about numbers, and numerical growth all they see are people switching churches. (see my earlier posts, Shuffling the Deck, and the (not so) Funny Cartoon) And if that is a church’s plan to grow then there is a problem with growth simply defined as “re-shuffling the deck”. Numbers have to be more than just putting butts in the seats.

2. A lack a passion for the church growing and for seeing numerical growth may be a lack of passion to see lost people become followers of Christ. Ouch! This one may hurt.

3. Also, people may put the reluctance of numbers, because they need to justify why their church isn’t growing. Every church should be growing, by some number. It doesn’t have to be the insane numbers that God is blessing some churches with. (we want to guard against the comparison trap) But what about last year? Can a particular church at least count 1 person who has come to faith and is growing and serving in the church from last year? Considering that some statistics have a good portion of churches not having seen anyone come to faith through their ministry last year, 1 person would be an awesome reversal of where some churches are currently at.

Like Paul and Perry, I have been thinking a lot of this idea of numbers recently. But, I have been thinking about it via a different track, through the idea of the “Kingdom of God”. When you look at the Kingdom, when Jesus talks about the Kingdom, it is always in terms of a growing organism. The Kingdom of God grows. It spreads. It is like a mountain that covers the earth. It is like yeast spreading the the dough. It is like a small seed that grows and flourishes into a healthy, vibrant tree. Read the OT and the NT and you can’t help to walk away with a picture of God’s Kingdom growing in greater stature, power and influence. When we look at the Kingdom of God we should anticipate (no wait!, EXPECT) to see it GROW. Of course this picture of growth obviously translates into numerical growth. (Read Graeme Goldsworthy's Gospel and Kingdom)

Christ's church should grow, part of that growth is numerical, and every number is a Person.


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