Todd over at MMI had a great post yesterday about the adverse affects conferences can have on Pastors.  While I have never personally experienced this from attending a conference, I have felt this after reading books or hearing the stories of other churches.  I felt like a loser when I read Rob Bell’s story and heard about 10,000 people attending in 6 years.  (A note to those that are anti-numbers: I know this isn’t the only way to measure a church’s effectiveness, but we can’t ignore that it is A way to measure)  What I’ve come to the conclusion of is that Rob’s story, Fellowship’s story, and Northpoint’s story are all exceptions to the rule.   So to compare myself to the exceptions is like me being upset because I’m not as tall as Shaquille O’Neal.  He’s an exception.  But just like people, there is a natural height or size that healty churches grow to.  That might be 6 feet or 5’5, for a few that might mean 7 feet tall, but our responsibility as Pastors is to create health at the size God has given our churches.  Because while 2 people might be 6 feet tall, if 1 weighs 200 pounds and the other weighs 500, then the health or lack thereof is obvious.  This is where growth and health meet.  We’ve been taught that all healthy things grow.  So our desire should be to create health in our churches at whatever size, so we can reach more people for the kingdom.  Does this mean we should just sit on our hands and not work to learn as
much as I can from these churches?  No way!  I still want to see how
they operate and see what I can glean from their experiences.  But to compare Shaq at 7 feet to me at 5’10 isn’t a real comparison.  Instead, what’s healthy for a person of my height a build?  In the same way, at your stage of development as a church, what does health look like?  I believe we will find this much more beneficial to us as leaders and much less frustrating as we stop the camparison game.  This has brought me some comfort.  I hope it does for you too…