How Big is Your Church?

So often we “count” the people that show up to “church” on sunday mornings as people who are part of our community. question is posed: why don’t we count the people who are actually connected to our community through the web of relationships?

Example, in our faith community, we have anywhere from 60 – 80 people showing up to a worship gathering. so, from this we say that our church is about 60-80 people “big.” When really, we have about 60-80 poeple who are (hopefully) redemptively living lives with a number of other poeple in their personal lives. CAN THIS MEANS THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE CONNECTED TO OUR COMMUNITY. Can it be that they are part of our church because they are in relationships with people in our faith community?

If yes, can you see the amazing perspective this puts on our understanding of people’s value to the congregation? We only count poeple when they show up on Sunday mornings to “church.” But, isn’t “church” = community? So we “count” the people that are connected to our community through the web of relationships that flow from our community.

Let’s just say our 60 people have relationships with only 5 people. That means our congretation is touching the lives of 300 people! can we be open to say that we have 300 people in our community?! This is not a way to make me feel better about the “size” of our church, but rather a means to show that each person’s ministry and role in the community “counts.” its not just the stuff done from the pulpit that counts. each person’s “ministry” (i.e. redemptive relationships) count for the kingdom of God….

hmm….