Never… never… count people.
People count, but you should never count people. Your denominational affiliation may insist that you count and report your attendance / membership. But you should never… I repeat never count people. This is a miserable truth. It is one that must be wrestled to the ground and defeated.
Many centuries ago a phrase was used by mariners that is still in use today. When referring to passengers on a ship, the term that is used is “souls on board”. When radioing for help in a maritime disaster situation, the question will be asked, “How many souls on board?” You will argue that I am simply playing words games, but I am not. Souls matter, people do not.
If we are merely concerned about paying the bills… if we are only concerned with the “tally” that is reported to our denominational overseers, then “butts in the pews” is our goal. And if butts in the pews is our goal, we can use just about any method to achieve it. We don’t have to give a tiddly about souls.
But… if you are pastoring a small congregation you are faced with a huge task. A horrible temptation hangs over your head each and every day. Do I count people or do I count souls. The knowledge that people translates into paychecks can be ghost that haunts our every action; our every decision.
I once had a deacon that came to me with this: “Pastor, we need to advertise in the local paper for a drummer.” You see, we had a very nice drum set that wasn’t being used. The drummer that had played for years had moved on to another Church and thus we had no one in our congregation to play. This issue can be one frequently experience in a smaller sized Church. Musicians are a luxury. I suggested that my preferred method for finding a drummer would be that we should pray about it. We should ask the Lord to bring a qualified person to us.
Apparently my expression betrayed my skepticism; for she went on to say… “Drums move people. It doesn’t matter if the drummer is a Christian; any drummer will do.”
Really…!!!! This deacon had lost sight of the truth that if the Spirit doesn’t move people then do we, should we, really care about the “moving”. This deacon had lost sight of “souls”, and instead was only concerned with “people”.
Bottom line is that you must make up your mind which way you will play the game: souls or people. Once your mind is made up in this matter, this decision will provide guidance for all subsequent decisions.
Never… never… count paychecks (yours or others).
This is huge: if you cannot handle knowing the size of the paychecks of other ministers, then it is better to remain ignorant of this truth.
I once sat in a meeting with a pulpit committee that was considering me as their next pastor. We had talked for a very long time about several different matters. They asked questions of me, and I asked questions of them. Back and forth it went for I suppose maybe 2 hours or longer. It became obvious that the Q and A was beginning to wind down, when one of the deacons looked at me and asked, “Do you have any more questions?” I thought for a moment and said, “No. I don’t think so. I think we’ve pretty much covered everything.” To which he responded, “You haven’t asked about the salary. You haven’t asked about how much you will be paid.” With a quiet confidence I said, “It doesn’t matter. If I am supposed to be the pastor of this congregation, I expect that you will pay me enough to meet my needs. And if you can’t or don’t, well then… I expect the Lord will make up the difference. So… I would prefer that we don’t even discuss it. If it ends up that I am chosen to be your pastor, I will find out how much my salary will be when I get my first paycheck, and that will be soon enough.”
Live free from the worry about the size of your paycheck, and be careful to guard yourself from the knowledge of what others are paid. Generally, this information does you no good.
Never… never… count how people value your ministry.
What do you do when your ministry is so small that everyone believes that you are insignificant in the
To both questions, the answer is the same. Don’t believe what everyone believes. Keep doing what God has called you to do, and never count the value placed by others upon your ministry. There is only one that can determine the value of your ministry and that is the Lord. And trust me… He will certainly judge it. However, we must forever remain vigilant in the battle against believing the worth (or lack of worth) placed upon our ministry by men.
Never believe your own résumé. Never believe your own press.
The poor man believes that God is obligated to help him because of his poverty. The rich man believes that God is obligated to help him because he (the Lord) dares not “bite the hand that feeds him”. The wise man knows that God is obligated to do neither. If you believe what others say about your ministry, whether great or small, you will fail to live in the abundance of God’s grace.
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