Church In Chains - Worship Attendance Should No Longer Be Our Measure of Success

My first pastor position was in a small church of 80 members. Average worship attendance was 35-40. When I started, I harbored fantasies that my preaching would be so profound, word would spread and attendance would begin to rise.

So each Sunday, as I stepped into the pulpit, I would count heads as the prelude was played. Much to my dismay, attendance remained remarkably steady.

So I tried some new strategies. I polled the congregation and preached series based on their interests. I focused on better delivery, eye contact, and connection with the people. I even began to preach from notes instead of a manuscript. But no matter what I did, the same 35-40 faithful people showed up each Sunday.

When friends and relatives asked me how my first call was going, they would invariably ask if the church was growing. I soon came to believe - both from internal and external expectations - that I must not be a very good preacher. Just an adequate one, only good enough not to chase people away.

It was only ten years and two churches later that I finally realized that Sunday morning attendance is not the best measure of success for a pastor. Many of my colleagues have never realized this, and continue to struggle with the stress and the self-doubt I had experienced.

Why is worship attendance considered the chief measure of success for pastors and churches? Why are offering totals and building projects a close second and third? If those are not the best measures, then what are?

These are questions all church leaders need to be wrestling with as we transition from one era of church history to the next. For the past 40 years, numbers for mainline Protestant churches have been on a steady downward slope. More evangelical denominations, who for a while avoided the decline, are now losing members, too. Even the non-denominational megachurches are having more trouble attracting people through their doors than they did a decade ago.

In short, if we maintain the ABC standards (attendance, buildings, cash), we are setting ourselves up for further discouragement. Cultural trends much larger than us are driving this shift away from church participation, which means we need to focus on different goals.

These new goals and measures of success are being revealed by the Spirit as time goes by. My hunch is that it has to do with being a counter-cultural witness against the consumerism, individualism, racism, and many other “isms” that predominate in today’s world and bind up people’s freedom.

What do you think will be the new ways the 21st century church measures if it is fulfilling its calling?