THE ONE NECESSARY THING: Relationship… not Church
We are living in a day and time where we see in a lot of churches what I will call an unfortunate reality. Many church leaders are struggling with the solution to cause an increase in their church congregation numbers.
First let me say that there are many good books available online and in bookstores on the subject of church growth. There are church growth consultants and testimonies of others who now have a lot more numbers than they started with.
Not to take away from pastors having large numbers (congregations) or the authors and their books offering methods and means to grow our churches. I believe many of them offer good ideas and have been known to produce results in spots and places. However, what some church leadership have to work with does determine the results and it will definitely vary from church to church.
We also have learned that in some church congregations, the large numbers only mean that someone figured out how to work a math formula.
However, growing the numbers of our congregations should never be the first priority no matter what our challenges are. If those who make up the numbers have no relationship with Christ, it means nothing at the end of the day.
Numbers and dollars must never become more important the getting people into relationship with Christ Jesus.