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Number of People
When new people begin attending a church, there is a tendency among existing members to resist them. This is founded upon the mistaken and subtly deceptive concept that "Small is Beautiful." It argues that great numbers of people are not important, it is the spirit that counts. "Where two or three are gathered," it says, "then there is the church." In this respect, David Pawson writes, "We have glorified littleness."1
Small is Beautiful
It is interesting to note the attention the Bible gives to numbers. Not only is there an Old Testament book named "Numbers" but Gideon, David and other people carefully counted the people of Israel. Jesus himself is introduced to us at Bethlehem where his parents had gone because of a census, a counting of the number of the people. We read of the twelve apostles, the feeding of the five thousand people and then of the five hundred who met Jesus after the resurrection. "Somebody on the day of Pentecost was so full of the Spirit," writes David Pawson, "that they counted heads!" Peter pulled fish out of a net and meticulously counted one hundred and fifty three.2 The early church certainly took great pride in recording numbers of people.
1David Pawson 2John 21:11 3Luke 15:4 4Luke 15:8 5Matt. 5:14 61 Corinthians 4:1
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