Image: Growinnc | Flickr

A healthy church does not inevitably mean a numerically growing congregation.

I used to believe that it did.

After all, I've read about the "truth" of inevitable congregational growth in every church leadership book written in the last 30 years. I even taught it ...

Image: Okko Pyykkö | Flickr

Small church pastors are often told that if our church isn't growing it's because we're not paying enough attention to the numbers.

That's not true.

Small church pastors are very aware of the numbers – sometimes painfully so.

I'll admit that small churches ...

Image: Matt Batchelor | Flickr

Recently I met someone who had spent many years on staff at a church of over 4,000. During his entire time at that church, he never met the pastor.

He expressed some frustration about it, because he admired the pastor and would have enjoyed learning from him over an occasional ...

Image: Keirsten Marie | Flickr

Numbers are a great way for church leaders to gain objective information. They can help us quantify data, spot patterns and trends, and face harsh realities.

But information is not the same as truth.

Numbers can give us facts, but they can't give us truth. Yet, ironically, ...