Leaven

He told them another parable:

"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed 

in with three measures of flower until all of it was leavened."

-Matthew 13: 33

I admit, I sometimes get discouraged by numbers.  Every day there are at least a few articles of woe reporting about how the church is in decline.  There are also no shortage of articles prescribing how we ought to fix that problem.  A brief survey of possible solutions:

1. We need to be more pure in our doctrine
2. We need to more flexible in our doctrine.
3. We need to be more clear about our values.
4. We need to be less self-righteous and judgmental
5. We need to engage people with quality, lively, contemporary worship.
6. We need to give people the deep roots of liturgical tradition.
7. We need to "get out there," where the people are.
8. We need to get the people "in here" where we are.
9. We need to offer value to talented, prosperous people who will support our ministry.
10. We need to minister to the least of these.

Alright, I just got to ten, and I'm getting bored already writing up pairs of seemingly contradictory strategies, but honestly I could go on, and on.  The thing is though, none of these by themselves are necessarily bad ideas, I have seen all of them proposed thoughtfully by various commentators on the Ecclesia.  I have tried to phrase each item as positively as I can, and I will tell you that, in certain circumstances, each one of them could lead to a healthy, or healthier church culture.  It would be great if we could actually figure out a way to do all of them without suffering a schizophrenic crisis.

But I think perhaps there is another thing that we need to do before we attempt any of that.  That thing is to realize, and honestly accept that God is not impressed by our membership roles.  God is not pleased by a million dollar church budget, or a new member class of 150 people.  We are entirely too impressed by those things to realize that God cares as much about one lost sheep as he does about the 99, and that is not a critique of the 99 that is a positive statement of God's attention to detail.

Mustard seeds, yeast, lost coins, small things, growing and living things, these are the fuel of parables.  Stories that have a place in the lives of the people who hear them.  The way yeast works is not by making all the flour into yeast, but by helping the flour turn into bread.  Is the goal of the church to make all the world into Christians or is it to leaven the world so that the kingdom of heaven can draw near?

How you answer that question will largely determine how well you can actually follow Jesus.  It will also determine how fixated you get, for better or worse, about any sort of numbers.