The Question I Hate as a Pastor

Have you guessed it yet?

"Why don't you wear a tie?" 

"What's it like only working one day?" Sooooooooooo hilarious. No

The hated question is this: "How many are you running?" This is a subtle way of asking "How big is your church?" Maybe you think I'm reading too much into this query, but whether I serve a church of 150 or 15,000, the question sets a poor precedent. It indicates that the size of our congregation in some way tells us anything about our church.

     Earlier this month, an article was published that addressed the Church of England's need to "fill pews." The archbishop suggested that increasing their social media and digital presence would be important to growth. An article in 2012, just prior to the new Archbishop being named, called for a leader who would "fill the pews." Both articles communicated that if the church could build a crowd, then everything would be ok. Nothing was said about winning souls.

How has this hat not brought people back?!

     And so we return to the hated question. Asking a pastor how many he's running, indicates that church health can be proven by the number of people willing to show up on Sunday. However, Jesus hasn't called us to build a crowd, but a church. A church must be more than a collection of warm bodies. It must be a family of Christ-followers that are committed to Jesus, each other, and the work of the Gospel. 

So let us learn to ask the questions that matter, working not in competion, but cooperation.