The hard truth: God cares more about the holiness of a congregation than He does the size of the congregation. Using numerical benchmarks to somehow size up the blessing God pours out on a congregation or to evaluate members’ ability to stay faithful to the guidelines of Scripture lacks spiritual maturity and reveals our reliance on human understanding in our vain attempts to build the kingdom of God through our own methods. -Thomas White & John M. Yeats, Franchising McChurch, p. 63
Why has the church bought into the lie that only big churches can win in the battle against our culture? What victory is it if we accomplish an incredible feat with massive budgets, slick advertising, targeted marketing, and the newest programming? Do we miss out on the greatest experience of God working through the “least of these” to impact all of eternity when we spend our effort more on marketing tactics than prayer? In fact, some of the great movements of God in history have come from small churches that decided to get right with God. As He moved in their midst, their small clay pots, torches, and trumpets become the sharp swords God used to bring salvation to hundreds if not thousands. – White & Yeats, McChurch, p. 68
The church is not a business; its pastors and leaders are not CEOs. The gospel is not a commodity that can be bought and sold, no matter how you want to package, market, or sell it. The church is not designed to be a purveyor of good feelings or emotional experiences like some kind of amusement park or vending machine. We can stall all of this, but the reality is that many churches evaluate themselves by asking the same type of questions mentioned above. Do the people have buy in? Are our ministries cutting edge? Do we utilize the best technology? Are we growing numerically? At the end of time, your congregation will stand before God. He will evaluate your ministries according to the hallmarks of success He put into place for the church, not human inventions. In fact, God’s investment strategy is often exactly opposite to the measurements of the world. -White & Yeats, McChurch, p. 70