Over the last couple of weekends we’ve had record numbers at Fellowship Church.  I’m talking about in the 20-year history of our church we’ve had more people over the last several weeks than ever before.  That’s awesome!  That’s great!  There’s nothing like it!  But Fellowship Church began 20 years ago right here in a little section of MacArthur Commons office complex.  We just rented this section.  And I’ve got to tell you, one of the great moments in my ministry was the time when we hit over 300 people.  It was unbelievable. 

We’ve been doing the same thing for 20 years, hopefully changing and tweaking stuff.  The numbers come, the numbers go.  The tide goes in, the tide goes out.  We’ve been constant.  Yet, as I look at the culture of the church I think many times we talk about our numbers and advertise our numbers when we should keep them on the DL.  We should keep them within our context.  Because in reality, I can’t compared Fellowship Church to another church in our city or another church halfway around the world.  I mean the bottom line is, every church is unique.  And make sure that you count people, because people count and they matter to God.

Before, you know, I’ve said stuff like, OK, we have this many people or we have that many people and I say, “God has blessed,” or whatever, but the bottom line is, I think I’ve said those things in my life out of more pride than I have, all right, here’s the deal. 

So again, just watch out.  Because whenever you put a number out there, whenever you say this, or you Tweet this or say this or whatever and you put a God sticker on it, you’re making a bunch of people feel bad.  You’re making a bunch of people feel like, “Man, I’m not doin’ jack.”  And the reality is probably the best church growth stories are stories we never read about, we never hear about.

So I’m not even gonna tell you what we’re running right now.  Forget it.  It’s awesome, it’s great.  Whatever.  But I will tell you the great story of Fellowship Church happened about 20 years ago when we had over 300 people.  And make sure you never forget that in your pilgrimage.  So let’s count with integrity.  It’s important to count because people count, but let’s understand what it’s about when we share those numbers.  I’ll talk about numbers later in another installment.