Acts 27:12, 37 “The majority decided we should sail on. … Altogether there were 276 of us on board.”
There are a number of great Aha!’s in this chapter and it was hard to pick just one. For instance, the majority vote that resulted in a sinking ship. From cover to cover in the Bible, there is not a single case where majority rules results in godly behavior or results. The alternative to majority rules, politics and compromise, always results in a lowest-common-denominator decision, never the highest-possible-good. In other words, mediocrity.
But my favorite Aha! Is that there were 276 men on the ship. First, that makes this a pretty big ship. That big of a ship in AD 50ish is just not a part of my mindset. In my mind’s eye mostly I see small fishing vessels.
The real Aha! is just how carefully the early church kept records. They counted everything. For them, numbers were important. For instance, there were …
- 12 apostles
- 72 sent out to preach
- 4000 fed
- 5000 fed
- 153 fish caught
- 2 fish and 5 loaves to feed the crowd
- A few fish and 7 loaves to feed another crowd
- 12 baskets of leftovers
- 120 at the first prayer meeting
- 3000 baptisms
- 5000 members of the church
- and 276 men on the ship.
Numbers count!
To that end, I keep track of numbers in the church. I make sure I have continuing access to average worship attendance, small group attendance, per capita giving (weekly offerings divided by average worship attendance), the number of first-time guests, the number of returning guests, the number of baptisms, and even the number of connection cards that are turned in. All these numbers, and others, help me measure the relative health of the congregation, much like a hospital keeps track of oxygen levels, cardiograms, blood pressure, weight, and so on.
But numbers don’t tell the whole story … they never do. Perhaps the most important measure of a church’s health are the stories they tell about the past, about the present, and about the future. Already I hear stories of people praying for one another – and the results of those prayers. I’m hearing stories of lives touched by our ministries. I’m hearing about how reading the Bible is making it easier to live faithful lives. And last week, someone shared with how they’ve applied the Invest in a Future Worth Having sermon series into their job. Lots of great stories.
One of our most important tasks, as a church, is to find those stories and then share them. As I’ve said before, hope is one of the most powerful tools in sharing the gospel. Those who are struggling in life, and in particular in their faith life, are looking for solutions. And when they hear a powerful story of how God has intersected with someone who’s “real,” that is, someone like you, they are filled with a wonder and a hope … “Maybe that could happen to me!”
As you hear stories of how the church and the faith is impacting those around you … or is impacting you … please share them with us. Help us be a church that values stories and shares hope.
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