By Michael C. Mack
How you view the statistics in this and the next two issues depends on the attitude you decide to take.
I suppose you could look at the numbers with a competitive spirit, comparing your figures with those of a nearby church or one in your size category, with envy, suspicion, or snobbery. Some of us might do the same with churches of Bible college friends (and foes), churches where we used to work, or those hip, one-word-name churchesโyou know, like Vibe, Collage, 24|7, and TheUnpretentiousDeliberatelyIntentionalChurchofAuthenticRelevantChristianCommunity (โUnpretentiousโ for short).
Iโd like to suggest two healthier ways to look at the numbers.
What if we looked at the list of churchesโand all our churchesโas one big multisite church? In a way, this is a New Testament perspective. โThere is one body and one Spirit,โ Paul said (Ephesians 4:4). โThe church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one,โ said Thomas Campbell in his Declaration and Address, โconsisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures.โ
What would it look like if we as Christโs church took on the attitude of the Three Musketeers: โAll for one and one for all, united we stand divided we fallโ? I know; I have a wild imagination. But what if churches on the list, especially those in the same communities or regions, banded together and worked together to grow Godโs church? What if they reached out to and served people in their communities, and carried out Godโs mission, regardless of which church building they showed up at, whose membership they joined, or who got credit on an annual listing? Imagine a pastor telling a young couple that a neighboring church was the best fit for their family. Imagine a large church sending some of their people to a smaller, struggling church to help them carry out Godโs mission there. Imagine small, medium, large and mega churches working together for Godโs kingdom and his glory.
That is what we have in mind when we publish these lists of churches. (By the way, for the first time, we are including churches of all sizes in our reports this year! We start this month with megachurches and emerging megachurches. In June weโll report on large and medium churches, and in July weโll report on small and very small churches. For more information, see โSpecial Church Report.โ)
Another healthy way of looking at the churches on these lists is as a family of churches, a concept I gleaned from David Dummittโs column.
In healthy families, parents raise their children with the goal of seeing them grow up and eventually leave home. The same should happen in healthy churches. In a healthy family, we celebrate each otherโs wins and provide support and help in times of loss or failure. We should be doing the same with the churches who are part of our family treeโall of them!
When attendance or baptisms rise at a church, itโs my hope that other churches celebrate with them, even if their own numbers were not so good that year. The priority is always Christโs church.
Like Ken Idleman (see his article about โThe State of Our Christian Churches Todayโ), I am optimistic about the future, but I also see areas we must improve. One such area concerns the struggling state of many of our ministers today, which Steve Reeves addresses in his article. I think youโll love reading our 10 โSpotlightโ stories of churches across the country. Note that several of these churches have gone through major leadership transitions over the last two years. Youโll see different methods of transition but some common principles for transitioning well.
Christ does not have multiple brides. All the churches on our lists, and those who opted not to participate this year, are one church with one common purpose, serving together to bring glory to our one God. We are all better together than any of us can be alone.
Author: Michael C. Mack
Michael C. Mack is editor of Christian Standard. He has served in churches in Ohio, Indiana, Idaho, and Kentucky. He has written more than 25 books and discussion guides as well as hundreds of magazine, newspaper, and web-based articles.
