Here are three statements that reflect an ungodly attitude towards church growth:
1. God isn’t interested in numbers.
Biblical Response: Acts 2:41 says that on the Day of Pentecost 3,000 were added to their number. Acts 4:4 says the number of men who believe grew to about 5,000. Acts 9:31 and 16:5 tell how the church increased and grew daily in numbers. Clearly, numbers matter to God. Here’s why: Every number represents a real person with a real soul, head to a real heaven or real hell, for a real eternity.
2. Our church wants quality, not quantity.
Biblical Response: The early church didn’t stop at spreading the gospel in Jerusalem. From there they went to Judea and Samaria. And from there they continued spreading the gospel around the world. Seems like God wants both quality and quantity. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and. If you’re not the firstborn and your parents stopped at one quality kid, you wouldn’t be here. And if we stop at a limited number of quality people, there will be people missing in heaven.
3. Large churches are impersonal.
Biblical Response: How you feel about your church has nothing to do with its size and everything to do with your involvement. The early church, though it numbered in the thousands, helped people feel connected by providing relationships through their small groups (Acts 2:46) and responsibility through serving opportunities (Acts 6:1-7). If you have relationship and responsibility you’ll feel connected. If you don’t, you won’t.
The early church had the attitude that if even one person was far from God, then they needed to continue reaching out. We would do well to adopt this same attitude.