The nightmare of numbers

The nightmare of numbers--don't let them scare you

Ministers work with people but cannot avoid numbers, either. How many members do you have in your church? How many come to worship? How many new members joined your church? Did your church reach the budget? What is your baptismal goal for next year? Numbers, numbers, and more numbers. They are all around us and just won't go away.

Nikolaus Satelmajer is the Editor of Ministry.

My father’s voice saved me from the nightmare.

What a nightmare it was! Wherever I turned I saw numbers—ahead of me, to my left and right, and behind me. Numbers! Numbers! Numbers! All attempts to escape from them failed. I was trapped.

My father’s voice announced that it was time to get up. I have always been a late-night person, which means that I am not the first to get out of bed. Hearing my father’s voice was more welcome than the jarring ring of a wind-up alarm clock. This morning I especially welcomed his announcement. My nightmare of numbers was over.

My nightmare was understandable. Several months previously I started working as an accountant for a large corporation in New York City. As the junior member of the team, I had the responsibility of posting the main ledger. The ledger included two large books, and I had to transfer into them numbers from various reports. This task took at least one week, which meant that during that week I saw only numbers. On this particular night the numbers became my enemies. In fact, my father told me that before I woke up he heard me calling out numbers—large numbers—into the millions.

Ministers work with people but cannot avoid numbers, either. How many members do you have in your church? How many come to worship? How many new members joined your church? Did your church reach the budget? What is your baptismal goal for next year? Numbers, numbers, and more numbers. They are all around us and just won’t go away.

But are numbers the enemy? Certainly not the numbers we like. If our salary increase is larger than expected, we like the larger number. Grandparents usually do not complain about having too many grandchildren. In Jamaica, Pastors Leon B. Wellington and Noel Fraser asked me to participate in a funeral for a one-hundred-four-year-old man. He had (if I remember correctly) 9 children, 54 grandchildren and 104 great-grandchildren. At the funeral we were told how much he loved his family—all of them.

Several articles in this issue refer to numbers. Mark Finley’s focuses on, among other things, the number seven— seven areas of church life. Jon Paulien’s article challenges us to look behind the numbers—who are the people coming to our churches, and whom are we ignoring? Joel Musvosvi’s takes us to the book of Daniel—a book full of numbers—and reminds us that God is personally interested in His people. Numbers can bring to our mind very positive images.

Jesus liked numbers. In Luke 15:3-6 He tells us that 99 and 1 are significant numbers, but (strange as it seems) of them both, the number “1” is the more significant. Jesus had a special affinity for 1—a small number, whether it was one small outwardly insignificant coin (Mark 12:42) or one small child (Matt. 18:2). In Matthew 16:21 He reminds us that 3 is important, for on the third day He will be resurrected.

Numbers should not scare us as long as numbers alone are not the only focus. If we chase numbers we will never experience the joy of ministry. If we realize that numbers can be symbols of that which is important—namely God’s people—they become our friends. The focus must always be on people, and I believe that the articles mentioned have that focus.

I was about 13 years old when I received for the first time a series of Bible studies from a Bible instructor. At that time more churches had individuals— often women—who had this humble-sounding but vital role. Week after week, Gertrude Battle—an older lady who seemed very old to a 13-yearold— studied the Word of God with me. Shortly before those studies we had immigrated to the United States from Germany, and I had a limited understanding of English. At times I found it difficult to understand her, but I could tell that she was truly interested in me. She wanted to know about my school, my family, and how I liked my new country. Even though I was not baptized at that time, she did not act as if she had wasted her time with me. She continued to show interest in my well-being. Was I a number to her? Did she indicate on some report how many Bible studies she had given me? Most likely she did, but she treated me as someone important. That’s what matters.

How many did you baptize last year? A large number, you say. That’s wonderful— as long as they know that you have a personal interest in their lives. How many hours did you spend reading the Word of God? One hundred and fifty, you say. What has the Word done for you? How many new pastors did you start in ministry during the last two years? Five, you say. Are they now as important to you as when you were recruiting them?

Numbers are a part of our lives but should not govern them. They should be symbols—symbols of how important we are to God and how important others are to us.


Ministry reserves the right to approve, disapprove, and delete comments at our discretion and will not be able to respond to inquiries about these comments. Please ensure that your words are respectful, courteous, and relevant.

comments powered by Disqus
Nikolaus Satelmajer is the Editor of Ministry.

February 2006

Download PDF
Ministry Cover

More Articles In This Issue

God's mighty acts in a changing world (part 1 of 2)

Do you question whether the hand of God can be seen in postmodernism? Then consider the author's eight reasons to believe that postmodernism is an act of God in the positive sense.

Tell the world

What must we do, and how must we act to bring Christ to people who do not know Him?

Contemporary design theory: the intelligent design movement

Natural laws, intelligent design, living organisms, cosmic force, naturalistic process or creation. Which is it?

A search for spirituality

A plurality of spiritualities in the religious market exists- what are they?

God's in control: Daniel's message of hope

They're colorful, dramatic, and suspenseful-why wouldn't we want to investigate the writings?

View All Issue Contents

Digital delivery

If you're a print subscriber, we'll complement your print copy of Ministry with an electronic version.

Sign up
Advertisement - SermonView - Medium Rect (300x250)

Recent issues

See All