At a recent workshop with a group of ministers from another denomination I asked the participants to introduce themselves and include in their introduction information about their context. When describing their context all participants shared the membership size of their congregation, specifically, the number they gave was the number of names on the church roll or register. I had to go back around and ask each participant to share the average Sunday morning worship attendance of their church (which ranged from one quarter to one third of the number they’d shared previously).
I was a bit surprised that these participants shared the number on the rolls in response to the question of church size. Usually it is in my own denomination that I expect to have to ask for the average Sunday morning worship attendance. One participant asked why I asked for one number and not the other. My response that the church roll or register was not much more than a list of names and didn’t indicate much beyond that. The average Sunday morning worship attendance is a more accurate indicator of the church size and style (see The Hidden Lives of Congregations for a treatment on church size and style).
I suppose it’s a sign of anxiety that the inflated number of the names on the list from the church roll is the number most often given. For those concerned about numbers it’s more assuring to toss that mythic number about than to deal with the number that actually reflects the congregation.
For those anxious about numbers there’s another list that’s more important than the names on the list of the roll. That list is the prospects list—a list of specific names of persons who are prospective members. But when I ask for a raise of hands from ministers about how many of their churches have a prospects list it’s not unusual to see only one or two indicate so in any crowd.
Being anxious about numbers is understandable, and will always be a fact of life in congregations. But to not do anything about it strikes me as foolish—beginning with developing a list of prospective members. Putting together a list of prospects may mean that church members will have to stop complaining about numbers and actually do something: follow up on that list!
