Church Attendance and Neurotic Pastors
November 23, 2009 by cloften
Filed under Family and Parenting
This is a simple question that I would love for pastors and ministry leaders to answer for me. It is going to seem a little rhetorical, but I don’t necessarily mean for it to. Why do we get so neurotic about attendance? I understand that attendance in some part, determines success. You plan for hundreds and you get four. That means something went wrong. However, it’s the small differences in attendance though that I think demonstrate how neurotic we are . Let’s say, for example, that we are a church that averages 100 people. If 90 people come, we get down, but if 10 more people (just 10) had come, we would be OK. If we average 300, people, we can go into 2 day depression spirals is only 270 show up. We go crazy over 30 people. Why is that? Did God show up? Were hearts changed? Did people draw closer to God in worship? I assure you there is no judgmental finger wagging going on here. My wife, Heidi, will tell you I am the worst one. I don’t want to be that guy any more. Any thoughts?
So true! To take the charitable position, I think we want to know that the way we are doing things is effective. Without another reliable source of feedback, attendance makes sense. Problem is, perhaps we often tie it to God’s work, when it shouldn’t be. Jesus only had 12 followers. You’d think if the God of the universe came to earth, then he would have everyone following him like zombies, yet just pissed a lot of people off.