Numbers Matter!
Fifty-four. That is the number of people who came to Revolution for the first time and filled out a communication card… in January.
For a church that is just shy of a year and a half old that is pretty awesome. Revolution is experiencing a ton of new people showing up on Sunday mornings and we are really excited about that.
Eighteen. That is the number of people who filled out a communication card for the second time at Revolution in January. That is actually pretty awesome too. We know that Revolution isn’t for everyone and having one third of the people that check out the church come back is pretty incredible.
As I think about those two numbers it reminds me that numbers do matter. Sometimes in church we try to be “spiritual” and say things like, “Well, the numbers aren’t the important thing…” and I have said this before. But, I have come to believe that, really, numbers matter. They matter A LOT.
About a year ago, I was talking to a friend and fellow church planter named Carl Kuhl. Carl is the pastor of Mosaic Christian Church in Colombia, MD. We were talking about how our churches were doing and I believe I said something like, “numbers aren’t really that important.” And I remember Carl stopped and looked at me and said, “Really? Do you really believe that?” Now at this point I was thinking to myself, “I don’t know. I just thought that is what you said if you were spiritual”. I mean I can remember growing up hearing people say things like this.
Carl went on to say something that I will never forget. Since then anytime I have had a similar conversation with someone about this subject, I too have passionately corrected them if they downplay the importance of numbers. Carl said this (or something like this but I will put quotes around it anyway. Carl don’t sue me for misquoting you if you read this), “I think that numbers do matter. In fact I think that they may be the only thing that matters, and here is why: numbers represent people.”
There it is. #’s = people. People that God loved so much that he sent his only Son to die in their place. He took our punishment. To bring us hope of life lived in relationship with God, literally forever. This is why I am passionate about the “numbers” at Revolution. This is why I am stoked about fifty-four and eighteen and why I am praying that those numbers would increase every month!
Think about this: If we continue to have the same number of people show up for the first time each month for all of 2012, we will have 648 visitors at Revolution this year… that is incredible. If we have the same number of second timers each month, and for fun lets just assume that these people decide to stick around, Revolution would grow by 216 “numbers” this year. This would mean we would have over 400 people attending Revolution weekly by December. Which would mean, hopefully, we would have 400 people who being led into a revolutionary relationship with Jesus (which is why we exist)!
One more number to throw at you - Fifty-nine. Fifty-nine percent to be exact. That is the number of people who say that they found Revolution because of a friend or family member. Now that is amazing and I have to say it makes me love this church so much, because people go to churches for a variety of reasons. But, the number one reason people stay is because they form a relationship. When the majority of people who are coming to Revolution are coming because of a relationship that means we are already #winning!
Our mission is: to lead people into a revolutionary relationship with Jesus. Great job Revolution. So far… so good! Let’s keep it going!
