From the earliest days the Christian church has focused on growth. The book of Acts takes us on a breathtaking journey—following Paul and others as they shared the message of Jesus Christ. More recently, after a few years of ambivalence following the disappointment of 1844, Adventists embarked on gospel-proclaiming journeys. James and Ellen White, Joseph Bates, J. N. Andrews, and others proclaimed the message.
As a result of the journeys of these leaders, the number of believers grew— even before a formal organization existed. It’s impressive, as recorded in the early issues of the Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald, how much attention the church pioneers gave to keeping the family of believers intact. If they heard that someone was discouraged, they hurried to bring hope. If someone stopped attending worship services, the church leaders wrote personal letters of encouragement. The pioneers demonstrated the ability to evangelize and retain members.
More importantly, how are we at retaining members? The Executive Committee of the General Conference issued an appeal titled “Conserving the Membership Gains” in April 2007.* Such appeals are important, but we must resist introducing new programs that “guarantee” that our church will retain its members. First of all, no such program has been developed; secondly, as important as programs are, our greatest need may not include another program.
Where is the list?Can you imagine the new head of a transportation business being told that of the 5,000 trucks the company owns, only 2,500 can be found? Or imagine the new head of a bank being told that 50 percent of the cash has disappeared? Yet it is not unusual for pastors who come to a new church to fi nd that for a significant number of members even an address does not exist. Worse yet, when the pastor asks about certain names, all too often no one seems to even remember those individuals.
Seventh-day Adventists at times resist “ceremonies,” but here’s one that I hope we will enthusiastically embrace. At the time a new pastor receives an introduction to the congregation, a leader should present a list of all of the members to the pastor. Perhaps such an approach would compel the congregation and the previous pastor to take more seriously the need to even have such a list.
Don’t worship the numbers. In approximately 150 years the Seventh Day Adventist Church has grown to about 15 million members. Good news, of course, but what does that mean? Faithfulness to the call of Christ cannot be counted in numbers alone. What does it mean when an individual is described as the pastor of the largest church in that city? Would they be less faithful in their ministry if they had the second largest or even the smallest church? If we don’t care for the person in front of the number, we are not being faithful to the calling.
The person comes first. In our congregations, do we emphasize the person? Consider, for example, the way we welcome individuals transferring to our churches from other congregations. It’s a disturbing trend when individuals introduce new members and do not even know how to pronounce the name of the person being welcomed. In at least one case the leader asked from the pulpit how to pronounce the name. I have also witnessed the names read and the pastor or elder asking if the new members are present in the congregation. If people are important to us—and that’s how Jesus treated people—then let’s also treat them as important by knowing that they are in the congregation and how to pronounce their names.
The pastor who would not stop.Some years ago I was holding evangelistic meetings in Utica, New York. The pastor, along with various members and I, would meet before the meetings to review the evening’s program. One evening the pastor was missing. Just before the meeting started, he called from a pay telephone (before mobile phone days, of course) and explained that he had been traveling most of the afternoon from one location to another looking for a member who was no longer active. He had finally found the member but would be late for the evening’s meeting. That’s focusing on the person and not the number. I commend that pastor—Henry Kenaston—for knowing the difference between a person and numbers. That’s the way Jesus worked.
