Quality over Quantity?
There have been many articles written on this site that have dealt with the issue of church size and numbers. I want to address this issue again, in light of reading the article “size matters little.†The author makes the statement that we should really be looking at quality over quantity when it comes to people in our church. My first thought is what makes a believer “quality� Does being able to recite scripture and biblical facts make someone quality? Does attending an in depth bible study on the book of I John make someone quality? Maybe the amount of respect one has for religious traditions makes someone quality.
For me, none of these really define what it means to be quality. So I began to think about what might define a quality Christian. And then it came to me – character. Biblical character really is what makes someone quality, isn’t it? It is the person that, as their core, is faithful, generous, perseveres, wise, courageous, and has integrity that is really quality. Unfortunately, character cannot be taught in a Sunday service, nor can it be learned in books. It is in the continual refining of God’s grace that our character is developed. And really, character is developed best when serving other people, even when we don’t want to.
But, then I look at the people that Jesus chase to build His church on… and many of them were not what we would call quality people. I mean, Peter denied his association with Jesus only hours before the crucifixion. These were fishermen that the world considered to be not quality. We see all over scripture that God chooses people who are not “quality†to lead nations, start the church and ultimately dwell within. So, while becoming quality should be one of our goals, it is not the requirement for ministry (thank God!). If we wait until we are quality to be mission minded people, then we could wait for all eternity. God is interested in using you now, right where you are at.
So, I am troubled when I read statements like “To God quality is vastly important and size matters little. When set in opposition to size, quality is everything and size nothing.†What this says is that it matters little if we share our faith, invite people into our communities or even a relationship with god, because we are trying to be quality. When many of these watch doggies see churches that are looking at numbers, they only see them as marketing moguls or desiring to expand their own empire. Granted, there are some out there at do this, but I would say this is not the majority. The majority of growing churches look at numbers to see what type of an impact they are having on the community and the kingdom of God. Every new number represents a soul, a story, and the potential to share the gospel with someone. I have often found that quality people reproduce quality people, right? They are the ones who are developing others, investing in their co-worker and neighbors, or simply giving more of themselves than taking
Within the article at CRN, the author writes
You see, I don’t see a scriptural basis for a “personal†revival without a community expression. When the group in the upper room had their personal revival (Acts 2), they immediately started discipleship groups, right? No. They went out and took that revival to their communities. I don’t think that we can have a revival that takes place without a numerical expansion in the kingdom. It is not acceptable to blame the fact that you are not growing on the fact that you are becoming quality people. It just doesn’t work that way. It would be like me saying that I don’t care if my son grows; right now I am focusing on helping him to become a healthy person. Part of being a healthy human is growing. part of people a healthy church body is growing. Part of being a quality person means introducing people to the very person that has made you quality.
