Just ran across it.

I agree with this. Our church does a lot of counting. For example: one of the duties of the Sunday School director is to count. He counts people in attendance, number of Bibles brought, and offering. Why? I don’t know. For the past year, I was a Sunday School teacher at my church. Not once did the SS teachers meet to discuss why these numbers were important. As a matter of fact, we didn’t meet at all. Nobody really knows what the SS teachers teach unless they sit in for a few classes. And it was not until the last few weeks that someone not in my class (I taught teens) sat in for a few minutes two weeks.

Now what was more important? Numbers, or what was being taught? I could have easily had steadily increasing numbers in all categories while teaching them all heresy! Not only would I not have gotten in trouble, I would have gotten praise for the numbers!

We cannot count on numbers! Does God count decision cards? Does He count those who “come forward”, “ask Jesus into their hearts”, or testify about their changed lives? No.

Ultimately, we cannot know with certainty who really is saved. Even when one is genuinelt saved, it takes time for the fruit of that salvation to mature. It takes time to see whether that seed will grow strong and deep, or wither under the sun, or be choked by weeds or eated by birds, or trodden by feet…

Does the Bible count those saved? In a few places, yes. But we must acknowledge that the Scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit. He would KNOW who was saved. And He mentions numbers to reflect the work of the Gospel, not some preacher’s stirring sermon, VBS program, or drama.

Essentially, that’s the opposite of just counting heads, isn’t it?

That said, I think we can ALL AGREE, that we want ALL churches to be healthy, for broken people to find wholeness, the grieving to find comfort, etc… and of course, it’s a relationship with Jesus that brings about that wholeness/comfort/etc… so, I have this story that I have to share with you all, because I think the people following this post will appreciate it:

So, I’ve been working in the “church world” for 13 years. I’m fortunate enough to be full-time staff, and that allows for me to provide for my wife of 11 years, and our two children. I moonlight for my Dad, who owns/operates a computer build & repair business in East County San Diego. Most of my Dad’s clients are retired, disabled Veterans (like himself), who are going back to school, so the Military provides them a computer to do that with.

Today, I delivered three computers. One of them was to a Middle Aged Philippino man in Spring Valley. I wrapped up my first appt. quicker than I thought I would, and I ended up at Daniel’s house about 10 minutes early. As I drove up to his house, I noticed that three very nicely dressed people (2 men/1 woman) were walking up to his porch. My first thought was, “great the JW’s got here before I could. Now I’m gonna have to wait”. When I walked up to his porch, the front door was open, and Daniel greeted me at his door, and invited me in. He told me that I could begin setting up, but the four of them were about to pray. Now, not knowing to whom or what they were praying to, I offered to come back later, and the lady said they’d only need three minutes.

So, I went back to my truck to get the computer parts I needed. The three folks who had beaten me to the punch, got in their car and left. As I began to set up the computer, I said to Daniel, “…friends of yours?” “Yes”, he replied. “They are deacons at my church, and they just came over to pray for me”.

Thinking maybe something was wrong, and that’s why they’d come over, I asked, “Do they come over often?”

I was BLOWN AWAY by his response:

“…no, not really. Only once a week.”

ONCE A WEEK!

Then I thought that maybe he went to a church of 25-40, which is why the deacons could visit the 8-10 families in their church that often. So I said, “…alot of people go to your church?” “Yes! No matter how early I get to church, I can rarely get a seat. Most of the time we have to stand, because there’s no room – which is funny, because the seating capacity is 400, and we have 4 services on the weekend, and 2 services during the week!”

Then I added, “Those deacons must really like you, to visit you as much as they do.”

Again, his response was pretty interesting: “Yeah, maybe. I know that there are a lot of deacons, and everyone in my church gets a visit every week. But it’s the same three that visit me. They’ve been coming to my house for a long time.”

Sorry for the lengthy comment, but I thought it was too remarkable not to share.

Why is it so hard for the Church to believe the best about the Church? We’re so suspicious of other’s motives/intentions…