The Great Giveaway

I just started reading: The Great Giveaway by David Fitch. The subtitle is “Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychoterapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies.”

I read the first chapter this morning on what standard we are to use and not to use to measure the “success” of our church. One of the things he said that stood out is this:

“Numbers miss measuring how well a church is functioning as the body of Christ. Numbers often miss measuring the progress of discipleship in a church. Numbers do not reveal how a church group is functioning internally, whether people are building up each other, ministering to each other, and ministering in the outside community as the body of Christ. In short, numbers, on their own, say nothing qualitative about what is going on in the church when viewed as the body of Christ. Indeed, when numbers reach a certain level, a further increase in numbers may deter achieving the goals of being the body of Christ. Consequently, a church that appears to be a success numerically may be a failure in terms of its mission to be a faithful local body of Christ.”

He goes on to make this insight:

“This does not require that bigness in itself is antithetical to being the body of Christ. But what it may uncover is that bigness is a hurdle to overcome and not a goal to be sought in being the successful body of Christ.”

Some church leaders will say, “well numbers are important because they represent people.” That is true to some extent, but they don’t necessarily represent people who have any interest in being the body of Christ on earth or who’s lives are being changed by the power of God.

So how do we measure the wellness of our church? I’ll let you know what David’s suggestions are tomorrow. You should check out this book.