I recently read Hey Brother, what’s your numbers? on New Church Marketing. This post got me thinking about the difference between growing worship numbers and effectively making disciples of Jesus Christ. I do not believe that growth in numbers does not equal growth in discipleship, but I also think that the people who gather for public worship matters. Being a part of a community of worship can be a part of an individual’s growth in discipleship, but a community of faith cannot measure effectiveness in making disciples of Jesus Christ solely in worship attendance.
I think that part of this question is, perhaps, the difficultly in measuring growth in discipleship. It is easier to measure worship numbers than it is to measure individual’s growth in following the way of Jesus Christ.
- How can growth in discipleship be measured?
- Is there a relationship between growth in discipleship of a congregation and worship attendance of that congregation?
- Can a community be growing deeper in discipleship and not experience growth in worship attendance?
Rev. Andrew Conard 
3 replies on “Worship Attendance and / or Discipleship”
andrew,
does the book answer those questions or are those your questions? That is a stuggle i am wrestling with. Small groups participation is up, stewardship is up, worship attendence is a little down. My boy dallas willard in the divine conspiracy http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Conspiracy-Rediscovering-Hidden-Life/dp/0060693339) in chapter 11 writes how to make disciples in a church and says that to make disciples you will have setbacks in numbers at least at first becuase you are preaching something new. Tell me what this dude said.
g
Gordon – Those are my questions, and I recognize and feel your struggle. I have The Divine Conspiracy on my reading list and look forward to getting to it. I was actually responding to a blog post, so feel free to check it out. He seemed to be on the side of less focused on numbers
[…] in leading worship for the second week in a row at Resurrection. In February, I wrote about the connection between worship attendance and discipleship and now turn to the experience of worship. Thanks to a post from beauty. (t)ruth. god. for the […]