If there is one thing I have tired of in my 20 plus years of ministry, it is the emphasis that many in the church world have on church growth.  I have read countless books on turning churches around and helping them grow, often written by people, who, for one reason or another, have experienced church growth in their situations.  It isn’t that I don’t want to see churches grow, and I have experienced some growth in every church I have pastored save one.

My problem is the emphasis on growth as the be all and end all of pastoring.  For me, the be all and end all is faithfulness to our calling to follow Jesus.  If growth accompanies faithfulness, great.  But sometimes faithfulness means that we will not see growth and often experience decline.  Nowhere is this more evident than in Jesus’ own life.  David Hayward’s cartoon (see link below) readily illustrates this.

From David Hayward, The Naked (or Nekkid) Pastor