Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width – The ‘Success’ Illusion

One noticeable thing about many, if not most, advertisements for staff positions in churches is that they include some such invitation as to ‘join a growing church’. While it is most desirable that churches grow, given the overall decades-long, chronic decline in Christianity in Australia it is probable that many of these claims of growth may be somewhat ‘gilding the Lily’.

This, what might be called ‘rose spectacle’, view of congregational growth and health is not uncommon because of what I call the ‘Success Illusion’ that I initially wrote about in my book ‘Quantum Mission’. Several years later, it is probably time to revisit this topic which has significant relevance for the mission of the church, for it is evident that, in terms of church growth, ‘All that Glitters is not Gold’ even when advertised as such!

A good place to start with such an analysis is to ask the basic question – ‘What is Growth’? The answer to that question has in fact many dimensions.

Numerical Growth and the ‘Inconvenient Question’

The first, generally most favoured, growth metric we might examine is that of attendance numbers. An example (one among many) of a church that has experience a significant increase in attendees post the Covid lockdowns is that of (what we will call) St Gertude’s. If you went along to the main Sunday services at St Gert’s you would find them packed with people, including many families, children and youth.

This for most members and clergy is considered to be the primary growth indicator of a successful and ‘growing’ church’. However, few will ask what I call the ‘Inconvenient Question’, which is-

          ‘Where have all these new members come from?’

Asking that question will in most cases expose the issue of the ‘Transferee Mirage’

The Transferee Mirage

St Gertrudes considers itself a ‘successful’ church because it is bucking the trend and seeing numerical growth. A caveat here, however. The reality, one very rarely acknowledged, is that such growth is mostly if not entirely ‘Transfer Growth’ not ‘Kingdom Growth’ (i.e. new converts) that has taken place.

If an analysis is made of such alleged ‘success’ in terms of missional fruit, it generally reveals that it is frequently a ‘Mirage’.

This is because any growth or even stability in attendance is largely due to people transferring from other congregations (often close by), denominations, or regions, and in major population centres in Australia probably mostly due to high immigration. This is NOT the result of missional strategies, rather, as in the case of St Gertrudes, the numerical growth is largely a deceptive Mirage, one at the expense of the loss of the churches the transferees came from. This may be church growth which creates an encouraging ‘buzz’ for ‘the regulars’ at Sunday services, but it is not the result of the making of new Disciples, and is most definitely not Kingdom growth.

Newcomer Growth

Another, more positive, growth metric is that which measures what the five-yearly Australian National Church Life Survey (NCLS) calls Newcomers. A Newcomer is defined as –

‘Someone who has joined a congregation in the last five years, but who has never been part of any church (the Unchurched), or at least not for a very long time (the De-churched)’

An increase in Newcomers is clearly a welcome occurrence and may be to some extent a measure of a congregation’s missional effectiveness in its local community. However, all Newcomers are not necessarily, indeed none of them may be, new spiritually re-born Converts, therefore Newcomer growth will not necessarily be Kingdom Growth.

Newcomers are welcome, but it is important to remember that Jesus didn’t say go and build big churches and fill them with lots of people. He said ‘Go and make disciples’, that is new Christians. Discernment is needed as to whether or not Newcomer growth is more than just numerical growth.

A Mile Wide And an Inch Deep

An old TV series about two tailors was called ‘Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width’. As the title indicates they were not known for the quality of their product. Indeed, the title originated from unscrupulous London backstreet tailors palming customers off with cheap material instead of the good stuff for their new suit.

I was reminded of that title when I attended a church leaders’ conference several years ago which focused on church growth. I remember little of the content of the conference except one thing. This was that a large and/or growing congregation is not necessarily healthy, any more than a small and/or declining congregation is necessarily unhealthy. Those metrics can be very simplistic and misleading.

It seems to me, having studied many numerically growing churches from a range of denominations and in several western countries, that too many, including leaders, have a ‘Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width’ (NMQFW) approach to analyzing what is going on in their congregations. This results in a celebration of increasing numbers but paying little attention to spiritual growth and the fact that in terms of maturity the congregation can by described as being ‘A mile wide and an inch deep’.

It doesn’t take too long in conversations with, often long term, members of many numerically growing churches to realize that the writer to the Hebrews’ upbraiding of many in his audience, applies to them. That is –

‘In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.’

One aspect of great numerical growth is that it can often be characterized by the description ‘All that Glitters is Not Gold’, meaning that in terms of the Kingdom it can be a Mirage.

Significant numerical growth should be analyzed to discern whether or not it is of the ‘NMQFW’ or Christianity Lite variety. Such a congregation will not have the spiritual drive for, or degree of sacrificial commitment to, Disciple-making required if the decline of Christianity is ever to be reversed.

Conversion Growth

The heart of a truly converted person is the one prophesied in Ezekiel 36:26,27-

^‘ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws’ 

 that is a heart of the spiritually reborn person, one grafted onto the True Vine, one moved by the Spirit flowing from that Vine, that is Jesus. Such a person is more concerned with Kingdom growth than Church growth, and will not be deceived by transferee mirages, Newcomers that remain unconverted nor will they be impressed by a shallow ‘Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width’ analysis of a congregation’s health.

The primary metric for a congregation’s health is not the numbers that turn up to services, but the number of true converts, those who have experienced what John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress) described this way-

          “Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some people seem to think….it is wounding work …. this breaking of hearts – but without wounding there is no saving”.

And without saving there is no Kingdom Growth!