Video Transcript: Quality and Quantity
welcome back. We're continuing our study of developing great commission skills. We're still on skill number three, setting objectives and establishing accountability. And what we're going to look at with this video is the skill topic, quality and quantity. Now what we're going to find is that both quality and quantity are very important when rightly understood. So as we broaden our discussion of the various matrix, quantitative matrix, effective GCOs, address quantity as well as quality. But dealing with numbers, when it comes to ministry, can be very tricky. We can get a lot of trouble dealing with numbers. We don't want to fall into the trap of thinking that bigger is better, that somehow more is desirable, that the biblical idea of growth simply has to do with with number or size. That is just not the case. However, there is a danger of shutting off the importance of numbers of quantitative measurements. You will recall from Revelation 7, when we look at that vision of the apostle John, he says, What, behold, there's a great multitude that no one could number. Now the question is, this, is this vision about numbers? No, it's not. It's about souls. It's about the eternal souls of people. The number is so large that it can't be counted at least, at least by us. Obviously, God knows the number. We know that God is really quite dialed in to numbers. In fact, let's look at a couple of Scripture passages from Genesis 15:5. What does God say? Says he he brought Abram outside and said, Look toward heaven and Number the Stars. If you're able to number them, then he said to them, so shall your offspring be a clear indication that the family of God is going to be gigantic insize big, big, big numbers from Psalm 147, he determines the number of the stars. He gives to all of them their names. Wow, that's an intriguing concept. You know, when you name something, you set it apart, you give it a status, and God names the stars, absolutely, absolutely incredible. Now I want to share a concept with you. I call this the numbers continuum. This is something that I've run into over the years in my dealing with with pastors and leaders. The numbers continuum stretches one end to the other. In this way, on one end, I've had discussions with pastors and some leaders that take great pride in the fact that their churches are shrinking to a very small number. Now, how does that make sense? Well, their perspective is that the reason we are shrinking is because we are being so faithful, we are not compromising. You know, culture is pushing in directions that are against the teachings of the Lord, against against scripture, and we're we're holding firm. We're standing firm in the midst of fierce opposition because we are so faithful, and the loss of people, the lowering of our numbers, is our Red Badge of Courage, if you know that reference, it's an indication of just how faithful we are. Now the other side of the continuum, at the other pole, there are those in leadership that feel like whatever you need to do to reach large number of people is credible. We'll do. Whatever it takes to get people in here, because the more people that come into the orbit of our church, the more of them will be exposed to the truth, to the gospel. Well, yes and no, because I've noticed that
there are those times when churches of that ilk have actually compromised on non negotiables like the authority of Scripture say, in order to draw large numbers of people. So in my estimation, each of these poles is in error. We shouldn't be boasting about losing people and claiming that that proves faithfulness, nor should we be compromising what can't be compromised in order to draw a crowd. So either way you look at it, you're losing ground. Now, when it comes to investigating any particular subject, I believe that the place to go is scripture. Now I was very concerned about the perspective. What is the right perspective? What is the biblical perspective about numbers when it comes to ministry? And I was so concerned about this issue that I actually made it the center of my PhD dissertation, which gave me the motivation to spend about four years investigating. Now I'm going to, I'm going to maybe save you about four years of your life, because I'm going to cut right to the bottom line as we work through but let me give you my my model for how to approach a given subject biblically, there are two questions that I want to ask. I think I might have spoken about this in an earlier session. First of all, what does God say about this in his word? And in this particular case, talking about numbers? What does God say about numerical growth in the church in His Word. And then secondly, what does God mean by what he says about numerical growth in the church that's in the Bible? What does God say about this? What Does God mean by what he says about this? And so I investigated thoroughly, and I use that model with just about any or anything that comes down the pike. I'm concerned. What does God say about this? What does he mean by what he says? You see, it doesn't matter what I say, no offense, but it doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter what culture says. It doesn't matter what the guy on TV says, It doesn't matter what social commentary says. It doesn't matter what Facebook says. It matters what God says He is the only true voice of authority. So I want to know, what does God say about this? What Does God mean by what he says about this? Now again, I'm going to save you four years of your life, you can thank me later. Let me tell you one of the most startling realizations that I had in my PhD studies as I was working through that question, what does God say about numerical growth? What does he mean by what he says? Something emerged in my study that was very surprising. It had to do with the significance of the Lamb's book of life, which is mentioned several times throughout Scripture, the book of life, the Lamb's book of life. It's often stated in the negative, like you will be excluded from the Lamb's book of life. Okay, we're told in Scripture that the Lamb's book of life was written before the foundations of the earth. So in other words, it's kind of hard to think about dates, about the calendar, when you're thinking about eternity, but let's put it this way, before time, there was the Lamb's book of life. Before Genesis 1, there was the Lamb's book of life. Now that's mind boggling to think about, but Scripture tells us crystal clear the Lamb's book of life before the foundations of the earth. Now, what is
included in the Lamb's. Book of Life. The Lamb's book of life includes the names of the saints, of all those throughout all of time who will come to faith in Jesus Christ, as John would say, who have been given the power to become children of God, they're all listed. It's like the family tree, the family registry. All of our brothers and sisters, past, present, future are all listed in the Lamb's book of life before the foundations of the earth. This is a list of everyone who will come to Christ throughout the course of their lifetimes. Now, what's that got to do with the Great Commission? What has that got to do with the mandate to multiply, to go and make disciples? I'm going to put a diagram up for you now, the Lamb's Book of Life diagram, and there you go on your screen. Now what you see there is four columns, so I'm going to speak to each column in that first column on the far left, the one that's shaded you see at the top, we're talking about the past. These are the names. These are the names of the saints, those who came to faith in their lifetimes, who have already lived their lifetimes in the past, they're already with the Lord. They are that great cloud of witnesses that the Scripture speaks of those that went before us, that great cloud of witnesses, that that gigantic group of children of God who have lived their lives and are now with the Lord in heaven. Now it's not our responsibility to reach them with the gospel. They've already been reached, they've already lived, they've already died, their souls have already gone on to heaven. Now on the other side of the chart, the far right, you see future. These are the names of people who are going to live in the future. I'm talking future beyond our lifetimes. Way down the line, they haven't lived yet, but their names are already recorded in the book of life. They are among the children of God, but they're going to come into the family in the future. Their names already recorded in the Lamb's book of life. Now, if you're struggling with this concept, theologically, just take a look at all that, that all of the references to the Lamb's Book of Life, in Scripture, and just logically think this through. God knows everything. God is sovereign over everything. God providentially governs everything, including those who will come to Christ in their lifetimes. Well, those people who haven't lived yet are not our responsibility. They're going to live sometime in the future, and future church will have the responsibility of connecting with them, drawing them in, by the grace of God to the kingdom that they might become children of God. So we're not called to reach those who already lived. We're not called to reach those who are going to live later. Now that brings us to the present in the center, and you'll notice that I've split the present out into two separate columns. One column I'm referring to as already, the other column I'm referring to as not yet. Here's the thing, the already group is a listing of all of those who are alive today, whose names are recorded in the Book of Life, who have already come into faith. They've already received Christ as Savior and Lord. They've already come into the family of God. They are not our responsibility in terms of evangelism. They've already been reached. They're not in the harvest, as it were. They're already in the
family, in the church, but the other group, the not yet group, these are people who are alive today, whose names are recorded in the Lamb's book of life, who have yet to come to faith. This is the plentiful harvest. These are those with whom the harvest is white for harvest, these are the folks that will be reached in their lifetimes, will be brought into the family of God, and these are the folks that we are responsible for reaching alive today, names in the Book of Life haven't come in yet. That is the harvest, the plentiful harvest that Jesus speaks of, but Jesus also speaks of a limited labor force, now the Lamb's book of life is really not about numbers. Numerical growth in the church is not about numbers, just like the stars of heaven are not about numbers. Numerical growth in the church is about names, names that are recorded in the book of life. People that are are waiting spiritually, even if they don't know it. They're waiting for the church to come and get them to bring them home. They're prodigal. Now we don't have the ability to regenerate anyone. No one comes to faith unless the spirit draws them, but God has chosen to utilize those of us who are already inside the family home to go out and find those who are missing and bring them home. This was the mandate that Jesus had in mind when he said, Go and make disciples, baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to be obedient, to live the life that I'm calling them to. We are responsible for those who are alive today, who have not yet come in. That is the harvest that we are seeking. The huge significance, huge significance of the Lamb's book of life. Quantity is important and should be reflected in our great commission objectives, quantity. Now let's talk about quality for a few moments. Quality is also important for several reasons. First of all, God is about quality. You know, right in Genesis, in the first couple chapters, what do we see God is in the process of creation, and as he creates these various components of creation, he stops and evaluates and he says it was good. You know, God distinguishes between good and bad. It was not good for the man to be alone. God distinguishes between good and bad. God distinguishes between good and evil. God distinguishes between right and wrong. Let me give you an example. I'm fascinated. I'm fascinated by the accounts in in the Book of Kings, bleeds over into Chronicles, the accounts of the kings of Judah and Israel once the kingdom had divided. You know, you've got the kings of Judah, you've got the kings of Israel, and you have all of this recording in Kings and in Chronicles of who these people were and what they're known for. Well, it it appears that God was very concerned. And with one thing in particular, let me read you a couple of verses that deal with several of these kings. I'm reading from I Kings 15:9, in the 20th year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah, and he reigned 41 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maakah, the daughter of Abishalom, did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as David his father had done. He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his father had made. You see, what he did was he
purified the worship, and he had the people of Israel worshiping God, we might say, in spirit and truth, the true God being truly worshiped. Now let me jump over to verse 25 Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father and in his sin, which he made Israel to sin. One more down to verse 33 in the third year of Asa, king of Judah Baasha, the son of Ahijah, began to reign over all Israel in Tirzah and he reigned 24 years, he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin, which he made Israel to sin all right. As you read the accounts of each of these kings, we find that statement either he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord or he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. And what was the criterion upon which God made that judgment? It had to do with worship. Did these kings lead the nation in the authentic worship of the living and true God, or did they bleed their worship practices into the pagan practices that surrounded Judah, that surrounded Israel in the Foreign nations that worshiped pagan idols and practiced their their cult practices. God was concerned with being glorified. That was his priority, and he wanted to be worshiped properly, authentically, truthfully. And the king that did so did what was right, the king that did not did what was evil? Interesting. Now I want you to think about this is that all that these kings did is that all that they're known for, what about other things that the kings did? Well, let me call your attention to I Kings 15:23 it says this, in summary, we're talking about Asa. We go through this. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and he did this, and he did that, and he did these. And we come to the end of that little passage, and it says this, Now the rest of the acts of Asa, all his might, all that he did and the cities that he built. Are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? One more of these, with Nadab verse, 31 now, the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did. Are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. In other words, some kings did what was right in my eyes because they worshiped me properly. Others did what was evil in my eyes because they did not worship me properly. Now, anything else you want to know about these kings. Look it up. Go to the library. Check out the chronicles of the king. Look it up. But the thing I want to focus on is how the Kings led the nation in worshiping Me. Amazing. It says so much about God's concern about his glory. So why do we deal with quality? God dealt with quality, separating good from bad, good from evil, right from wrong. Uh. Secondly, Paul explains that all things would be to be done to the glory of God. We notice this in I Kings, I Corinthians 10, Paul explains in his first letter to the Corinthians that all things, regardless of what they are, are to be done to the glory of God. All things, nothing falls outside of that purview. All things are to be done to the glory of God. God is concerned about quality. Now there's a strong relationship also between quality and quantity. So I want to take you back for a moment to our
discussion about levels of commitment. You might recall that we talked about that before. Let me see if I can remember those off the top of my head, we started with the idea of people who are observing that our church is there. They might be considering showing up at a church service or some function or some event they visit, they begin to attend regularly. They start to become connected. They ultimately move into serving. And at the top of the list, they become people who invite they invite others to come. All right, where does quality fit in? One of the leading elements that either encourages or discourages someone from inviting other people to come to their church. Is the confidence level that they have, confidence in the quality of what their friend, their neighbor, their business associate, whoever it is that they're inviting? Are they confident that the quality of that experience is going to be very high? What bolsters their confidence in a church's ministry is high quality. They have to be certain that if my invitees, my guests, were to come to my church, their experience would be warm, pleasant, desirable, dynamic, special. They would be impacted in very positive ways. If the quality is not there, the confidence will not be there. So here's the word of warning, the potential for increased quantity. In this case, new folks coming in, will be handcuffed by the lack of quality. That's why this is so important. Setting Great Commission objectives and establishing accountability effectively requires that consideration be given to both quality and quantity in crafting Great Commission objectives, we need to see high quality. We want to see high quantity in ways that bring honor and glory to God. Now that concludes our video on quality and quantity. When we get together in the next session, we're going to be focusing in on what I call completed actions. Completed actions. So I invite you to stay tuned for that. We'll see it next time, and in the meantime, may God bless your continued efforts to serve him well in the name of Jesus. Amen