Do Numbers Matter?

It's an old question in church leadership circles: Do numbers matter?

By "numbers", pastors generally mean worship attendance.

The conversations can be excruciating - guys comparing measurements, if you know what I mean. But, in fairness, numbers DO matter...because numbers represent people and people are insanely important to God.

Do numbers matter to us at Next Level? Yes. I want to let you know about the ones that matter most to us.

Life Groups attendance is hugely important because Life Groups are where you live out the Christian faith and are best shaped into Christ's character.

Worship attendance is important, because the Sunday experience is our best shot each week at connecting disconnected people.

Per capita giving is important because people give to where their hearts are drawn. Baptisms are important too, because that helps us measure how willing people are to identify themselves with Christ in a public way.

But there is one number more important than any other: the number of people who tell us that they are choosing to step across the line of faith and follow Jesus Christ.

That number is what we live and die for. We look at that number every week and knock ourselves out trying to get that number up. I am obsessed with that number and hope to grow more obsessed.

So far this year 174 people have said they have chosen to follow Christ at Next Level.

That is a great number. I was praying for 200 this year and clearly I was not praying with enough faith. That number will go WAY up next year.

What could slow that number's growth down?

If we ever lost our passion to put the disconnected first.
If we ever focus primarily in, instead of out.
If we ever think that this is all about us.
If we ever run out of space to host new people (and we are getting really close to that now).

I am psychotically committed to insuring that none of those things ever happen.
Psychotically is perhaps not the exact right word, but you get the picture.

In days to come I will write more about this and as the High Stakes Giving series begins I'll talk about it even more!