How many students are coming to your meetings?

Disclaimer: I am writing as a campus staff who has both been on a new team (where we were launching a new ministry/campus and had no students involved) and on an established team (where we've had 500+ students involved).

In both of the scenarios above, one of my least favorite questions was/is asked by other staff, church members, or friends, "How many students are coming to your meetings?"

That question has always rubbed me the wrong way.

I think we ask this question because we want to attach success or failure to something and we think that looking at a number seems to be the best way to do that. However, the heart and souls of people are more complex and confusing that just a number of bodies in seats at a meeting. I just don’t think attendance at a weekly meeting is a good gauge of the health of your movement.

But the Bible mentions numbers and even seems to tie that with spiritual fruit, so why does this question continue to rub me the wrong way?

As I've pondered that over the years, I think it's because it's often accompanied by a faulty belief.  We think that if we are a part of a movement or meeting where hundreds are coming out, we are "successful" and "doing the right things."

If I'm totally honest, I don't think that is always the case. I think we may feel better about ourselves but we can often hide behind numbers. My days where I've enjoyed ministry the LEAST and actually did less ministering to students was when our movement was very large. I felt like I did more managing of people than getting to minister to the spiritual needs and questions of students. Sure it's fun to be the ministry on campus with the momentum, but I didn't join staff simply to be the big dog on campus. I joined staff to be a part of investing in God's kingdom and trusting Him to win non-believers to Himself, build them in their faith, and send them to the world to do the same. Life change and making disciples is what I want to be a part of - and the fruit of those things (lives) isn’t always reflected in weekly meeting numbers.

My missional team leader at LSU, Darin Travis, does a great job reminding our team that we are ministers of the gospel - to make THAT our focus each week.  It frees me up as a staff member to not fall prey to the numbers game but to lead from a heart of ministering to people.

So if you're a part of a large movement, don't get too comfortable, or just be okay with managing what you've got - ask God to help you minister to students. And, if you're a part of a small movement, don't be discouraged, you have the power that raised Jesus from the grave living in you to help you minister to others. Don't get stuck in the performance trap of the numbers game!

All too often, I think we ask the number question (and feel success or failure with the number question) because we are living for the praise of man, rather than living in our identity in Christ - where we are loved for who we are and not for what we do.

Photo credit- Michael Clesle's flickr