Numbers in Ministry: Necessary or Worldly?
Numbers. Many people find them scary or boring. In ministry, sometimes numbers are seen as the only proper measure of failure or success – attendance, baptisms, conversions, gospel conversations, offerings, etc. Sometimes numbers are seen as the ultimate symbol of worldly pragmatism and the opposite of Spirit-driven, Scripture-based ministry. In New England, where the beautiful landscape is dotted with small churches, measuring ministry numbers seems, at the very least, discouraging.
As with all ministry issues, what you and I think and feel matters very little. What matters is what God thinks and what He has communicated to us in His Word. Does God see the use of numbers in ministry as good or evil, beneficial or detrimental?
“What matters is what God thinks and what He has communicated to us in His Word. Does God see the use of numbers in ministry as good or evil, beneficial or detrimental?”
The answer in Scripture is a little nuanced. On the one hand, we see the foolish, even sinful, use of numbers. God punishes David for ordering a census (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21). Perhaps David was motivated by pride or a reliance on human strength, and perhaps David violated the instructions of Exodus 30:12. In the New Testament (Acts 5:1-11), God kills Ananias and Saphira for misrepresenting the percentage of the sale of their property they donated to the church. In other words, they inflated the numbers to make themselves look good to the other humans in the church.
On the other hand, God orders or approves of multiple censuses. A census takes up the first four chapters of the book of Numbers. It was an essential part of the organization of the entire nation. The census is repeated in Numbers 26. There are other censuses as well (e.g., 1 Chronicles 27:1-15; Ezra 2,8; Nehemiah 7:).
Many other things are counted in the Old Testament – especially gifts and sacrifices. There was the inventory of materials given for the construction of the tabernacle (Exodus 38:21-31), for the dedication of the tabernacle (Numbers 7), and for the rebuilding of the temple after the return from exile (Ezra 2:68-69; 8:26-30). At times the Israelites counted (or tried to count) the number of animals sacrificed (1 Kings 3:4; 8:63; 2 Chronicles 29:21,32-33; Ezra 6:17).
Numbers are an important feature in the ministry of Jesus. Of course, there are the two key feeding miracles in which the men are numbered at 5,000 and 4,000 – meaning the crowds were probably thousands greater (Matthew 14:13-21; 15:32-39). Partly, these numbers were intended to show the extent of the reach of Jesus’s ministry. I have often heard that Jesus’s ministry resulted in only twelve disciples, but this is an exaggeration. 1 Corinthians 15:6 clearly states that after Jesus’s death there were over 500 brothers. For three years of activity, Jesus’s ministry was remarkably successful numerically.
“The church is supposed to be making more disciples…The mission God has given us is about numbers, so we need to be guided by Scripture into a nuanced use of numbers in our ministries.”
In the apostolic church, numbers appeared to matter a great deal. On the day of Pentecost, they estimated the number of baptisms at about 3,000 (Acts 2:41). Later, the number of baptisms, conversions, or attenders is numbered at about 5,000 (Acts 4:4). This seems to be why the BCNE and the SBC track baptism statistics – the early church did the same. The book of Acts has many references to general numbers, like “more” or “many”. Here is a list of passages: Acts 2:47; 5:14,16; 6:7; 8:25,40; 9:31,34,42; 10:44; 11:14,21,26; 12:24; 13:43; 14:21; 16:5; 17:4,12: 19:10,19,26; 20:26; 21:20; 28:23. In Acts 8:4, the author remarks on the increase in numbers of people sharing the Gospel. Throughout Acts the numbers are not only quantitative, but also qualitative. There are demographic comments about the types of people hearing and believing the Gospel (e.g., Acts 5:14; 6:7; 13:43; 17:12).
The concern for numbers continues throughout the New Testament. For example, Paul references numbers in his epistles (1 Corinthians 10:33; 2 Corinthians 4:15). His greatest concern is to share the Gospel in more places, with more people, so that more disciples might come to place their faith in Christ (Romans 15:19-20; 2 Corinthians 10:16).
The New Testament ends with Revelation – a book heavy in numbers. There is yet another (symbolic) census in Revelation 7:4-8. What is pictured in Revelation is a multitude of countless thousands of angels (Revelation 5:11) combined with a “multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number” (Revelation 7:9) assembled before the throne of God, praising and glorifying God for all eternity.
The passages in the New Testament show why God cares about numbers. Numbers are the mission. The church is supposed to be making more disciples. We are being used by God to bring in the harvest, so that for all eternity there will be that multitude before the throne of God. The mission God has given us is about numbers, so we need to be guided by Scripture into a nuanced use of numbers in our ministries.
Randall Curtis serves as the Rhode Island regional coordinator for the Baptist Churches of New England.
