PROFESSOR PRICE
  • Blog
  • Megaregions
  • Courses
  • Trip Info
  • C.V. & Research
  • Contact
    • About
  • French
  • Transformational Ministry
  • Missional Church
  • Gospel & Culture
  • Global Diversity
  • History | Church of the Nazarene

What Really Counts? Evaluating the missional impact of the Church, Part 1

6/5/2015

0 Comments

 
What “counts” is an English colloquialism for noting what activities and events matter and how to evaluate intentional participation in these activities. For example, the “Monthly Stats” page of a district website in the Church of the Nazarene offers fields for pastors to include average attendance numbers for Sunday School, Morning Worship, and Responsibility List. This is not an attempt to belittle this district, which itself acknowledges the dubious nature of the task in reference to the quote about statistics and lies, often attributed to Mark Twain and many others. The district asks churches to report what is expected by the denomination. 

This is no surprise to worship service attendees perusing worship bulletin inserts distributed by district offices every quarter showing average Sunday School and worship attendance numbers for all of the local organized churches listed by zones or mission areas. Sometimes, a column is given that shows how these numbers have increased or decreased from the previous installment. At the end of the church year, the District Assembly gathers these numbers into a district journal offering proof of who was in church on Sundays. Nazarenes are not alone in giving value to attendance numbers. We are also not immune to the deep scars these numbers may cause.

 A few years ago, Methodist Robert Linthicum, a three-decade veteran of urban ministry, lamented that the process of gathering attendance numbers for the small church pastor. “I know of no instrument created by our denomination that gives city pastors a greater sense of failure and of little worth than this annual book of statistics… driving home to the city pastor how ‘little’ he or she has accomplished…the previous year.”[1] This commentary on counting attendance was published over twenty years ago. Over the next two decades, little has changed in the value denominations still attribute to attendance numbers. 

Next Sunday, ushers will continue to collect the offering and take account of who is where in the church building during Sunday morning worship services. From the hard-to-believe-if-it-didn’t-happen-to-me file, there is a local church in a city not to be named that had created a peep hole in the flat stone wall behind the pulpit to allow the church secretary to have a direct view of every pew and in order to count who was really there.

Most church leaders are expected to track attendance in small groups, midweek activities, worship services, and fellowship events from the local church to the district auxiliaries.  Just a few weeks ago, a big deal was made in a nearby local church about the number of teenagers participating in an all-night youth lock-in in which students went sledding, played basketball and video games, and consumed large amounts of caffeine. It makes one wonder about the significance of this accounting and if it truly holds churches accountable to its primary purpose and mission in the world: To make Christlike disciples in the nations. So, what really counts in church?

Coming Soon: Part 2--Nickels and Noses


[1] Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan: A Biblical Theology of the Urban Context (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 292.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture

    Bio

    teacher, writer,
    talker, do-er

    Type Seven.
    ​
    Supposed Strengths:
    ideation, activator, strategic, learner, positivity

    Tweets by @JaMaPrice
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    August 2020
    November 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014

    RSS Feed


    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Asia
    Books
    Church
    Coffee
    COVID-19
    Diversity
    Film
    Folk Beliefs
    Intercultural Studies
    Luther
    Megaregions
    Microchurch
    Ordination
    Organic Church
    Public Library
    Road Trip
    Sci Fi
    Sci-Fi
    Skeptics
    Suggested Reading
    Training Video
    Urban

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • Megaregions
  • Courses
  • Trip Info
  • C.V. & Research
  • Contact
    • About
  • French
  • Transformational Ministry
  • Missional Church
  • Gospel & Culture
  • Global Diversity
  • History | Church of the Nazarene