ShepherdLeader.com

It seems that we in the American church are quite interested in – one might even say “fanatical about� – counting sheep, but not so much in knowing them. I’m not personally against measurements per se, but it just seems that we way too easily correlate the size of the flock with some vague idea of “success.� I think our free-market economy conditions us to be somewhat obsessive about numbers in the church, especially the three B’s: budgets, buildings and butts (in the seats, that is). Sad but often true. I wonder what would happen if we fasted from taking Sunday morning attendance for a while and instead focused on investing more energy in building deeper relationships with one another? All of the NT “one anothers� (love one another, forgive one another, accept one another, pray for one another, etc.) imply that the people actually know one another, an assumption that I don’t think is any longer true in the American church.