In his book On Church Leadership, Mark Driscoll provides statistics on church sizes in the US. Check out some of these numbers:

• 25% of US churches have fewer than 45 attendees weekly
• 50% of US churches have fewer than 75 attendees weekly
• 75% of US churches have fewer than 150 attendees weekly
• 95% of US churches have fewer than 350 attendees weekly
• Less than 2% of US churches have more than 800 attendees each week, and the percentages go way, way down after that.

This means that in light of high profile mega, or uber-mega, churches (which in many cases have an incredibly authentic and helpful ministry, Perimeter Church for example), those of us who lead the vast majority of US churches no longer need to think of ourselves as part of a small church, but a rather normal sized church. And when we consider the fact that THE church is not merely local, but universal, well, you see what I mean. By the way, I find it interesting that we have no idea concerning the actual numeric size of any church in the New Testament. Yes, we read of staggering numbers being converted in unique contexts such as Pentecost, and that the church grew steadily. But actual church sizes or numbers? Nada.

Os Guinness warns us of the tendency to count people too closely. In his book, Dining with the Devil, he says, "Counting is... the chief pleasure of the miser and money is the most pleasureable counting of all. Thus people and things are annihilated in the process of counting. They lose their true purpose and joy and become mere status symbols" (p. 50).  He is saying that just as a miser counts his money and finds life in his possessions, so too a pastor can find his life in Sunday attendance. I'm guilty as charged and will be perpetually tempted to draw my life from numbers—especially in a church plant, where tragically, numbers often define success. I suppose it is not wrong to have a head count as long as there is also a heart count.  Nevertheless, I ask that you would pray that I would be given grace to see people as humans to love and serve, not as numbers to count and use. Thanks.