Do Numbers Matter?

As I'm writing this, I'm still celebrating our most recent Wednesday night service that saw a record 87 children and youth here, not counting all of the adults. But even better was what happened afterwards: I was able to share the plan of salvation with three young ladies and they all trusted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We're seeing that kind of thing happen more and more often here at EFBC; and that, my friends, is what it's all about.

I recently received an anonymous comment from a person who said that they'd just happened upon my blog while surfing the Internet. It was quite obvious that this person had some different beliefs than we do, but they seemed to genuinely be a follower of Christ. In the comment, several accusations were made. This person wrote that "you care more for numbers than for souls" and that I am only interested in "growing a larger congregation."

So here's the question: Do numbers matter to God? I believe the answer is unmistakably "YES!" Read the Gospels and take notice of how many times you see the writers saying something to the effect of, "large crowds were following Jesus." Did anybody accuse Christ of being "just about the numbers?" I don't think so.

Read Acts 2 where 3000 people were saved and baptized. Did you ever think about the fact that somebody had to count all of those people and God felt it was important enough to include that number in the Scriptures? Throughout the book of Acts, Luke is continually mentioning how the church was growing and the Lord was adding to their numbers.

After the first deacons were called in Acts 6, the Bible actually tells us that the number of disciples began to multiply. Funny how the Bible mentions adding and multiplying (two words that are inherently linked to numbers), yet some people still believe that God doesn't care about numbers.

To the people who would say, "You're more concerned with numbers than with souls," I would respond by saying, "God cares about numbers and I care about numbers because every number represents a soul." And the numbers I am most concerned about are the untold numbers in our community who don't know Jesus.

So if you were wondering if I'm going to apologize for celebrating the numbers we've been having, the answer to that would be a gigantic "NO!" I'll always rejoice as our numbers grow. And I'll especially rejoice every time another soul is saved. Jesus didn't give us the Great Commission for nothing. Numbers matter to God, and they should matter to us, as well.