By NEIL DUMAS

Minister of Music, First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Tex.

(Published in Baptist Progress, May 3, 2006)

Have you ever considered how obsessed with numbers we can be in ministry? Why is it that we consider numbers to be the ultimate affirmation of what we are doing? Many times these numbers represent people so shouldn’t we be considering people instead?

Stop and think for a moment about what a number can do when spoken at the wrong time. You are paused before a morning worship service. What a great time to empty your thoughts and begin focusing on our Lord. Right before the first song is sung a Sunday School superintendent steps up to the pulpit and announces the number for Sunday School attendance. Immediately your mind is taken away. Maybe the number seems low and you are wondering why so many people were absent. Maybe you begin to personalize those absentees and hold a resentment towards them. Maybe the number was greater than you anticipated and pride begins to swell inside your mind. “Look what we did,” you say to yourself.

Can you see why focus in worship is so important? Why not save those announcements until after your worship time? Those numbers will still be the same then.

When speaking in numbers there is a big, intangible quotient that must be considered. We must learn to distinguish quantity from quality. You may have 1000 people in your worship service but you must ask yourself, “Are we really worshiping?” Jesus had throngs of people follow Him here and there. Many just wanted to see what would happen next with little or no regard for spiritual things. Even today we have folks who attend the “most popular” church or the one where the hype is deeper than the actual depth of worship just to be seen. Worship is not number oriented. Scripture tells us in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Worship is close and intimate. It is not limited by the boundaries of numbers. If you attend with a large congregation or a small congregation it is still your responsibility to individually open your heart to your heavenly Father.

Some personalities are just more attractive than others. If you’re not careful, the worship service can move over into the realm of entertainment. As I’ve stated before, there are no substitutes for real worship. No one can take on the role of a surrogate worshiper for you no matter how energetic or attractive their personality is. Musical groups are great at leading worship but if you are just a passive listener you are cheating yourself. Fantastic orators with booming voices may draw your attention but whether or not you involve yourself actively is up to you, not them. Walking up and down the aisle, shouting and pounding a pulpit, telling a joke or illustration are all ways to keep someone’s attention but leading them to heaven’s throne for an encounter with God as well as a response to His Word should be a worship leader’s goal. Just as John the Baptist said in John 3:30 - 31, “He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.”

Learning to look beyond the numbers and personalities is so important. We live in a time in history when churches are involved in more activities and programs than ever before. Specialized ministries for men, women, couples, singles, college-age, high school youth, middle school youth, juniors, middlers, primaries, preschoolers, and nursery, as well as musical groups, drama teams, outreach teams, senior adult ministries, etc. With so much going on we must be setting attendance records and impacting more people than ever before! Many churches are. Some are just spinning their wheels. Learning to distinguish between effective and ineffective programs is essential in ministry but it should not be based on numbers. Just keeping people busy will bring apathy and a slow death to any program or ministry. Impacting people is more than just going through the motions.

You know, I’ve always resented those books that claim you can lead a Bible study with only 10 minutes of preparation. It is human nature to want to do something with the least amount of work required but when you deal with souls and discipleship preparation is a must. It would serve us well to remember the old say, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Look into the lives of the ones to whom you want to minister. Whether it is a specialized group or an entire community, stop to consider what their greatest individual needs really are. Begin at the beginning and not in the middle. Be content to grow steadily rather than try to “wow” them with bells and whistles to draw the insincere masses. If you are going to spiritually lead a group show them love, commitment, and dedication. Impacting people is more than filling them with shallow spiritual clichés or trying to do what other churches are doing. Capture a vision of what God wants you to accomplish. Direct people to that goal. Let the numbers take care of themselves.

Do not allow discouragement based on numbers ruin your vision in ministry. A sensitive heart + a God-given vision = a successful ministry even if it takes you through Egypt. Just ask Joseph.