“Can I Weigh You?”
In a gathering of leaders at the start of the year a few folk got nervous when I got out some weighing scales and declared that from thereon in we were going to start weighing people at church. Now before I’m accused of some kind of heavy shepherding (!) let me clarify what I meant.
When Catherine and I took on the leadership of City Church in July 2019, several people in different contexts mentioned that City Church was the largest church in Wales. We appreciated what they meant about the honour of leading a church with such heritage and so many wonderful people. However, having spent the last few years pioneering a comparatively very small church, we were more convinced than ever of something we’d always felt deep down: size isn’t what ultimately matters.
Of course, healthy things grow, but I believe Jesus doesn’t measure the success of churches by counting the number of Christians; He measures success by weighing those Christians.
Just to be clear, I’m talking spiritually and not literally here (although, these days, I think I’d do fairly well on that latter count!). Specifically, instead of counting how many people we have, church leaders should be weighing how committed those we do have are in their pursuit of God. How weighty are they in love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, and other spiritual fruits? How much do they resemble Jesus in their actions, like pursuing justice and sharing the gospel?
Too often, churches are focused on measuring the wrong things. I believe it’s time to change the scorecard. At the end of the day, the only thing Jesus is counting is disciples. That’s it. He doesn’t prioritise attendance, budgets, or buildings. Don’t get me wrong—there’s certainly a place for measuring finances and Sunday service numbers (these can be indicators of church health), but we often prioritise these metrics above all else. What we need to realise is that the one thing we should be measuring is: are we making actual disciples? And not just that: are these disciples making more disciples? This, regardless of size, is the true hallmark of a healthy church and the way Jesus ultimately measures success. On this scorecard, you’ll find large churches who don’t make disciples and large churches that do; small churches who excel at it and small churches that don’t.
This naturally raises the question: what does a disciple look like? If we’re unclear about our goal, then any path might seem acceptable. And once we’ve defined the term, how do we go about making such disciples? These questions will be the focus of my next couple of blogs. But for now, if you’re a pastor, I challenge you to become a spiritual ‘weight watcher’ too!
What do you think an effective church looks like?
1 of 3: Go to Part 2