We are all about the numbers

I get asked all the time if Elevation is all about the numbers.
Let me just clarify something:
Our church is all about the numbers.

The number of lives that Jesus can permeate and penetrate with the gospel.
The number of marriages that can be restored.
The number of teenagers following the Lord.
The number of depressed people that can find hope in Jesus.
The number of dads who don’t give their kids any attention who will learn to order their lives by the Word of God and start prioritizing their families.

What else matters? What else should we be about?

This might come as a shock to a lot of people, but measuring numbers and putting an emphasis on them isn’t a new phenomenon. 2000 years ago, Luke by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote:
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day…47 And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:41, 47

Apparently God is all about the numbers. So I want to be, too. And so should you.

It’s unacceptable to me as a pastor that we would stop growing when the Lord wants to add to our number daily those who are being saved. And in order for that to happen, we need to track every scrap of statistical data at our disposal. We’ve got to make sure we’re measuring ministry numbers to measure our effectiveness and enlarge the Kingdom of God. I don’t want to waste a single dollar or second on a program, piece of equipment, or ministry position that isn’t the best option for reaching the most people.

You might be averse to numbers for a number of reasons.

Maybe you don’t like the idea of big crowds. If that’s the case, you wouldn’t have liked the New Testament Church. And you really won’t like heaven.

Maybe you think it steals away from discipleship. It’s possible. But it’s just as possible for that to happen in a church of 10 people as it is in a church of 10,000.

Whatever your reason is, remember: every number is indicative of a story.
Personally, I don’t want to put a cap on the number of stories God wants to redeem. Especially when I read this:
9 I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God.”
Revelation 7:9-10

Now that’s a number worth shooting for. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wait until I die to see this. I want to see this partially fulfilled in my lifetime. More people worshipping Jesus than I can count.

I want to see a little heaven on earth through Elevation Church. Through every church. I think it’s what God wants too.

And that’s why we’re all about the numbers.

Now God’s giving me an understanding that you can’t measure everything you started today, tomorrow.

Some of the best innovations are resource suckers until they hit. Then, they either lead to the next, closer thing, or they themselves become the game changer.

I’m praying for God to give me the long term lens through which to see a few issues I’m facing today.

In my experience, a lot of people use these verses to say that we shouldn’t try to be great. That things like ambition, aspiring to be a leader, or wanting God to increase your platform are straight up unbiblical. Not good at all.

But when you read these verses, you can’t really find that idea at all. Jesus didn’t say, stop trying to be great. He just said, get there a different way. Flip the funnel and put yourself at the bottom, and that’s how you’ll become great.

You find this same idea when you study the life of John the Baptist. It’s interesting that Jesus had no problem calling John the greatest man ever. If it is bad to be great, you think Jesus would avoid that terminology. But once we understand why Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest man ever, it makes perfect sense. It wasn’t because he was greater than Jesus. It was because he had this attitude about Jesus:
He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3:30)

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be great. In terms of your performance. Or your influence.

But what you have to ask is:
Why do I want to be great? And how am I going to get there?

If you want to be great, be great for God’s sake.
If you want to be great, be great in a way that makes Jesus even greater.
If you want to be great, be a servant of all.
If you want to be great, flip the funnel. Put yourself at the bottom.

For me, that automatically brings the idea of a bridge to mind. Now of course Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross is the only bridge between God and humanity. But in ministry, we’re connecting people to Jesus, who ultimately connects them to God. So the bridge metaphor is apt.

If ministry serves as a bridge for people to connect with God, it’s necessary and vital that we are constantly evaluating the structural integrity of what we’re working with. Even the smallest gap can derail people by the way we do our ministry.

If you think that’s an overstatement or you don’t believe me, let me ask you this:
If you were driving on a bridge, and there was a gap in the bridge, how big would the gap need to be before you wouldn’t want to drive on it?

The truth is it doesn’t take but one small gap in this whole enormous bridge called ‘ministry’ to prevent people from getting to where they’re supposed to go. One gap can cause the whole thing to come unbuckled.

For example, there may be somebody who has been coming to our church, and they love it. But then they try to get in a small group, and we don’t return their email.  Who knows, that may be the end of the line for them when it comes to active participation in a church community. And all because of poor communication.

A small gap. A big difference.

That’s just one example. The same is true when it comes to how we’re treating first-time guests. The quality of our kid’s ministry. And even something as small as the frequency of audio and visual glitches.

Small gaps. Big difference.

What are the gaps in your ministry? What are the holes that people might fall through as you try to connect them with God?

Take a minute today and write all of them down. And then strategize and commit to fixing them. After all, the weaknesses in our churches aren’t just minor deficiencies that need to be acknowledged. They’re gaps that need to be filled.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who also pastors a church about creating an environment where people can confess their sin and get help. We both agreed:
The Church has historically done a really bad job at providing exit ramps for people struggling with sin. Especially when it comes to the staff who work in a church.

Pretty much, the choice we give people is A) confess your sin and cataclysmically destroy your entire life, or B) hide your sin and slowly destroy your soul.

What great options those are.

Since option B keeps food on the table and your reputation intact, most go with option B. As a result, people end up either struggling with a hidden sin for the rest of their lives. Or they eventually blow it and when they do, it’s catastrophic – to their family, their church, and themselves.

I’m sorry, but I think we can do better than that. We’ve got to do better than that.

Pastors, we need to provide exit ramps for our people who are really struggling with their sin. A way to gracefully exit their sin without destroying their entire lives. And before it destroys their entire lives. For everyone in general, but our staffs in particular.

Maybe through counseling.
Or a leave of absence.
Or releasing them with every bit of support we can give them and following up with them regularly.

Whatever it is, we don’t always need to provide people with an instant pink slip when they finally work up the courage to come clean. Or when they’re in the initial stages of temptation and are afraid they’re going to give in. That’s how you perpetuate an environment where sin isn’t dealt with until after it’s already had devastating effects.

I’m not saying we need to take away the consequences of someone’s actions. Sometimes the pink slip is necessary and warranted. Obviously every situation is different. I’m not saying you should keep someone on staff who has committed an affair. Or something else like that.

What I am saying is that we’re in the business of rescuing people from their sin.
Not destroying their lives because of it.

That includes the people outside of our church.
And the people in it.
And the people working for it.

Let me briefly unpack what one of our main goals should be every time we stand up to preach:
To bring timeless truth in real time.

People don’t need timeless truths that are removed from their situation.
If you don’t believe me, just ask Paul. When Paul wrote the book of Romans, he wasn’t writing theology for fun. The whole impetus for the book was two groups of people, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, who were judging each other and claiming to be closer to Jesus because of what they did or didn’t do. Paul, gasp, was responding to felt needs – relational and community conflict.

But people don’t need timeless truths to be removed from their situation either.
If you don’t believe me, just ask Paul. When the Romans were having problems judging each other, Paul didn’t preach a sermon on conflict resolution based on Dr. Phil’s 11 laws of relationality. He unpacked the gospel for 11 chapters. And then brought its truths to bear on the Romans’ situation.

Like Paul, we should always be aiming to communicate timeless truth with up-to-the-minute relevance. And that’s because God’s Word is eternal. Relevant. And therefore eternally relevant.

Our job is not to invent new truth. Not to water down old truth. But instead repackage timeless truth so that its light shines on the unique needs and circumstances of our time.

Whether you preach from behind a pulpit or next to a coffee table, in skinny jeans or a pinstriped suit, to 50 people or 5,000 people…

Make it your goal this weekend to communicate timeless truth in a timely way.
Bring timeless truth in real time.