Reveal: Where Are You?

In a declining church, the main focus immediately becomes getting more people to attend the church so that it does not close. If the church continues to decline in numbers, then there is a certainty that the end of the church is in sight.

So there is this mad rush to get people to attend. It becomes the ultimate goal for the church to increase our attendance. It becomes a cliché on Sunday mornings, “If we can just get more people here then our church will be healthy again.” Is that the case though? In his book, Reveal Where You Are, Greg Hawkins writes, “When it comes to numbers, we as leaders start to actually believe that attendance is the only thing we need to look at. It becomes a simple equation: increased attendance = people growing.”

There is no question that attendance is a necessity to keep a church alive, but then one must question if a full church is necessarily a healthy church. One would have to step back and determine what the definition of a healthy church is. If the leadership of the above church thinks that a full house is the sole responsibility of the congregation, then the answer would be yes. A full church is a healthy church.

If on the other hand, the definition of a healthy church is believers growing in their faith and winning their world to Jesus that would drastically change the outlook of the health of the church.

It is imperative that each church spend time to determine what their definition of a healthy church looks like. Sometimes when this is accomplished churches are forced to change staff. Perhaps their current pastor is not the one to take them to that level. Perhaps it is a change of scenery. Some church buildings are not suitable for the congregations that occupy them. Many times churches are forced to bring in a third party to help them assess their needs and goals.

Numbers are good, in fact they are one of the main ingredients in a healthy church, but it must be understood that numbers are not the sole ingredient. Each congregation must determine the full recipe for their ministry.