Striving for Numbers
The sermon warns against the dangers of prioritizing numbers and statistics in the church, instead emphasizing the importance of biblical judgment and spiritual quality.
A.W. Tozer addresses the troubling trend in modern Christianity where churches prioritize numerical growth over spiritual quality, leading to a misguided worship of 'Numbers' as the ultimate measure of success. He critiques the Laodicean attitude prevalent in many congregations, where financial reports and membership rolls are mistaken for indicators of spiritual vitality. Tozer warns that this reliance on statistics undermines true spiritual growth and reflects a dangerous heresy that is often overlooked by church leaders. He calls for a return to scriptural judgment rather than worldly metrics in evaluating the health of the church.
Text
In Christian circles today, the church that can show an impressive quantitative growth is frankly envied and imitated by other ambitious churches. Numbers, size and amounts seem to be very nearly all that matter-with a corresponding lack of emphasis on quality! This is the age of the Laodiceans. The great goddess, Numbers, is worshiped with fervent devotion and all things religious are brought before her for examination. Her Old Testament is the financial report and her New Testament is the membership roll. To these she appeals as the test of spiritual growth and the proof of success or failure in most Christian endeavors.
A little acquaintance with the Bible should show this up for the heresy it is.
To judge anything spiritual by statistics is to judge by another than scriptural judgment. Yet this is being done every day by ministers, church boards and denominational leaders. And hardly anyone seems to notice the deep and dangerous error!
Sermon Outline
- The Worship of Numbers
- The Consequences of this Emphasis
- A Scriptural Perspective
- The importance of biblical judgment
- The need to look beyond numbers
Key Quotes
“This is the age of the Laodiceans.” — A.W. Tozer
“To judge anything spiritual by statistics is to judge by another than scriptural judgment.” — A.W. Tozer
Application Points
- We should prioritize spiritual quality over numerical growth in our churches.
- We must be careful not to judge spiritual growth solely by statistics, but rather by biblical judgment.
- A true measure of spiritual maturity cannot be reduced to numbers or statistics.