What about numbers?

In this discussion about different aspects of the vision you will have noticed that almost all of my/our thinking is centred in convictions, content & heart issues.  What about structure?  What about size?  What about multiplication?

Glad you asked.

Numbers were honestly never part of the thinking as we began to think about vision for this church.  Of course everything that is healthy reproduces and grows so we knew to look for numerical indicators as one sign of life however it was down the list a bit for us. 

You see, our metrics for success are all jacked up.  What is success?  is it a numerical thing?  But what if what you are growing lacks the content to be a significantly positive agent of impact in your community?  Can it be called a “success?”  Aren’t we then multiplying something mediocre at best?  That may mean that we are successful in drawing crowds but is that what the NT calls success?

You see, the measure of success is on the level of convictions working out into action seeing fruit.  If CV is a place of powerful Truth and The Presence of God where people grow and turn and reach into their world and friendships and families with greater compassion and passion then even if we “grow” to 100 I would call it a kind of “success.”

But I’m greedy.  So if we stay faithful and begin to live out the convictions of Christ and the NT then I would love more and more people to caught up in that wake so numbers are, at this point, relevant.

Our take at this point is that we are to be courageous, wise and diligent to serve Jesus as He builds CV into a place of substance and efficient yet flexible systems so that we can be a resource for a move of multiplication into the rest of Southeast Kent. 

In a city with 30k+ students it is a no brainer that resourcing will be part of our call.  We want to catalyse programmes and experiences that equip people to jump in and be effective in walking out their Kingdom-role.  My wife Korenne had a picture the other day of a man standing on the side of a freshly poured concrete slab and unable to get in and help shift the hardening concrete because they had the wrong shoes... trainers instead of wellies.  It wasn’t a matter of desire or willingness but it was a matter of being inadequately equipped.  We want to make sure that the followers of Jesus who are in our sphere if influence are not inadequately equipped and resourced.  So CV will pour thought and effort and sweat into becoming a thoughtful and effective equipping hub church.

Now when that begins to happen and we see people resourced the time comes to release.  Too often churches “equip” to serve their own ends and programmes.  We need to equip with first the individual’s gifting in mind and then secondarily the needs of the region and city in mind.  Church infrastructure is way down the list although in the equipping process the les intense church-based programmatic  roles can be wonderful training ground for future leaders. 

The vision is equip the leaders to release an entrepreneurial and “apostolic” wave of catalytic dreamers to take “religion sucks/grace acts” to the neighbourhoods, businesses and cities of Kent and beyond.  We have a particular heart for church planting in areas such as Medway, Folkestone, Thanet, Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and  Dover.  But we are also open to expressions of multiplication that are less independent such as multi-site ministries to those areas and small groups or missional enterprises that extend beyond Canterbury to the rest of Kent.  If we equip the leaders we need to give them the cliff to jump off and spread their wings!

I know that this has probably stirred more questions than it answered but I hope you heard one thing loud and clear.  Numbers do not work as the measurement of success.  Oh God don't let us be big but soulless!  Keep us small if that is what it requires to stay substantive and dangerous!!  If we have loads of bums on seats but do so mostly because the worship is great or the doughnuts are tasty or the preaching is good then we will be absolutely useless.  We do long for numbers but only because each one represents a life that matters.  The heart of the matter is that we long for that life to be touched by God and transformed and set free and given purpose.  So i guess what I'm saying is... "We want both... changed lives and loads of them!"