I don’t consider myself to be naturally all that funny. It takes a lot  of work for me and usually comes across as kind of awkward (my wife can verify this).

Usually I don’t come across well because I’m trying too hard. I want people to laugh, so I spend a lot time fretting over the delivery of a joke and wind up completely butchering it.

Preaching and teaching can be like that, too.

One of the big challenges any communicator faces is holding their audience’s attention. If you’re dry as toast, no one’s going to be able to follow you, no matter how interesting the subject might actually be.

Interesting content isn’t a problem for most preachers. No one who has actually read the Bible could honestly say it’s boring—especially the Old Testament narratives (I know of at least one pastor who made a genealogy riveting, for goodness’ sake!). If the “living and active Word of God” truly does pierce the heart (cf. Heb. 4:12), woe to any of us who present it as dull.

But again, this isn’t a problem for most of us.

The problem is maybe we’re trying too hard to be something we’re not.

Many of us—myself included—spend a massive amount of time crafting a message, making sure it’s just so. We want to carry people along with our thinking and see what God’s Word says.

But here’s where we get messed up: in trying to carry people along with the message, we often wind up trying too hard to be funny, as if humor equals engagement.

John Piper says preachers should to be Bible-oriented, rather than entertainment-oriented. This is a good warning, and one all of us need to keep in mind.

If entertainment is our goal, we can come across as flippant, even disrespectful of the duty we’ve been given (to say nothing of being disrespectful to the text of Scripture). This is how we wind up with hour-long sermons that have perhaps 20 minutes of actual content, by the way; more time is spent getting a laugh than making a point.

It’s not that humor is bad, but it should be natural and textual. If our teaching comes across more like a comedian’s patter than a preacher’s plea, we might be trying too hard.

“Be fit for your work, and you will never be out of it. Do not run about inviting yourselves to preach here and there; be more concerned about your ability than your opportunity and more earnest about your walk with God than about either,” Spurgeon told his students. “The sheep will know the God-sent shepherd; the porter of the fold will open to you, and the flock will know your voice” (Lectures to My Students, p. 32).

All of us who are less-experienced preachers would do well to heed Spurgeon’s warning. Let’s be concerned about our ability—that is, we need to grow in our understanding of the Word of God and how to apply it well. But be much more concerned with our own walk with God than how we deliver a message. Our hearers know the difference. We might not be as entertaining, but we’ll be far more compelling.

“God’s given you so much, He’s done so much for you—now what will you do for Him?”

This is the trap of what John Piper refers to as “the debtor’s ethic,” that although we’re completely incapable of ever paying back our debt to God, there’s an implicit demand that we work at it. And the result is our good deeds and worship serve as interest-only payments on a debt that can never decrease.

Such a notion ought never be uttered among Christians.

And yet it is.

How many of us have been guilty of thinking something like this—or worse, using a tactic like this to motivate a Christian to give or serve?

I understand the tension that exists. When our churches seem to have only a few dozen people who are serving and giving while hundreds seem content to be come, see and take, it can most assuredly be tempting for a pastor to find a way to motivate them, to stir them to action.

And the debtor’s ethic will work, for a little while. People will serve for a few weeks. They’ll give regularly for a few months… and then they won’t.

There has to be a better way—and there is. I really appreciate the corrective Piper offers in Brothers We Are Not Professionals:

God takes pains to motivate us by reminding us that He is now and always will be working for those who follow Him in the obedience of faith. He never stops and waits for us to work for Him “out of gratitude.” He guards us from the mind-set of a debtor by reminding us that all our Christian labor for Him is a gift from Him (Rom. 11:35-36; 15:18) and therefore cannot be conceived as payment of a debt. In fact, the astonishing thing is that every good deed we do in dependence on Him to “pay Him back” does just the opposite; it puts us ever deeper in debt to His grace. “I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Cor. 15:10 NASB). Let us teach people that is exactly where God wants us to be through all eternity, going ever deeper in debt to grace.

Should we then stop preaching gratitude as a motivation? I leave that for you to answer. But if we go on urging people to obey “out of gratitude” we should at least show them the lurking dangers and describe how gratitude can motivate obedience without succumbing to a debtor’s mentality. (Brothers We Are Not Professionals, 50-51)

How can we motivate ourselves and others without becoming trapped in the snare of the debtor’s ethic? The key is found in 1 Cor 15:10 (cited above): It’s remembering that grace fuels even our gratitude—our salvation is all of grace, and thus our service is all of grace as well. When we recognize this and when it takes root, our mindset shifts away from us—even in our gratitude for the grace of Christ—and continually back toward Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Don’t worry. There’s nothing wrong.

Your vision might be clear. You’ve got a good sense of what the community needs and aren’t overwhelming everyone with programs. You and the entire congregation are praying fervently. You’re passionate about reaching people and equally passionate about the gospel. As far as you can tell you’re faithfully proclaiming the Word and living in light of it… and yet your church isn’t growing.

What’s going on?

Reading some pastors’ thoughts about church growth, you’d think that if your church isn’t growing, it’s because (despite your protestations), you must have some secret sin causing God to withhold His blessing. It’s the same game Job’s friends played, where instead of comforting him, they accused him of disobedience to God.

And yet.

What’s the deal? Is a church’s lack of growth a result of some unspoken sin on the leadership’s part? Is numerical growth always a sign of God’s blessing upon a local church?

I’m not so sure.

There seems to be a lot of pressure for pastors to have “successful” ministries—and by successful, what’s really meant is to have big numbers. While numbers are not wrong (they can be very good, in fact), we’ve got to be careful about how we think about church growth, and what it means to be successful as a church. And while I don’t entirely disagree with the points raised in the link above, they’re incomplete.

There are at least three other crucial factors that need to be considered when asking why some churches don’t grow:

1. “Soil” conditions.

You might be doing all the “right” things and have the right attitude, but nothing’s happening (at least not the way the experts tell you they should). We would be wise to remember Jesus’ words in Luke 8:4-15:

And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” . . . The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience (emphasis added).

Jesus is quite clear here: The Word is going to have a different effect upon the hearts of different hearers. Some will have the Word more or less bounce off their hardened hearts. Others will receive it with joy, but this joy will be fleeting. Others will be ultimately indifferent, focusing only on the cares of this world. And some will receive it and bear good fruit “with patience.”

Here’s the point: You have no control over the soil conditions. You are to sow the seed of the Word and trust that as many as have been appointed to eternal life will believe (Acts 13:48). And that’s the limit of what you can do.

2. It could be God being very merciful to you.

Our church has experienced rather explosive growth over the last several years—and it’s put us in a bit of an awkward situation. We’re currently renting the largest high school in the city and once we max it out (again), we’re stuck until we can get into a permanent facility. Our church’s leadership has done a wonderful job modelling restraint and prayerful decision making in the midst of a great deal of pressure (both internal and external) to build a permanent facility.

A permanent facility is in the works, but timing and resources are huge factors to always have front of mind, which is why I’m so thankful for their leadership on this. But depending on your circumstances, a lack of numerical growth may be evidence of God’s mercy upon your church. If you experience a major upswing in attendance, but not in giving, you’re probably not going to be able to add an addition, build a new building or rent a new facility. If you’re short on able-bodied volunteers, adding a second (or third) service may not be the best thing for the people. There are huge organizational implications that come with different attendance levels and not everyone is built to handle leading a church of that size and complexity.

And it may be God’s mercy upon you if you’re not seeing wild unheard of growth.

3. The Lord doesn’t want it to.

Ultimately, all growth is the direct result of God’s sovereign decree. He determines the times and places in which we live, and calls us to fulfill our ministries there. That means He’s also sovereign over the size of your church. If the Lord wants your church to grow to 1500, so be it. But it may be that Jesus will be more glorified if your church maintains at 50.

The fact is, if your church’s attendance is around 150 people, you’re in very good company. Mega-churches aren’t the norm; they make up less than two per cent of all churches in America. So don’t freak out. It’s okay to be un-mega. You’re probably not doing anything that’s preventing God from driving massive numbers of attendees through your doors. You’re likely just “ordinary” in all the best possible ways.

One of the looming questions in Christian ministry is trying to figure out how to measure whether or not what you’re doing is “working” (I hope you’ll forgive the expression). Some look at it in terms of success, which really just means numbers.

• How many people showed up?
• How many baptisms were there?
• How much are people giving?

And so on.

These aren’t bad metrics and can be an indicator of God’s working in a church’s ministry, but it’s not necessarily so as many critics of the church growth/seeker sensitive movement have made clear.

Others contrast this with the idea of faithfulness alone—that all you need is to be sound in your doctrine, godly in character and faithful in preaching and ministering to people. Again, good metrics, but as Tim Keller points out on the first page of his excellent new book, Center Church, a bit of an oversimplification as it risks ignoring the competency factor. Simply, you can be orthodox, godly, and faithful, but still not be good at what you do.

Keller offers a great third option: Fruitfulness. Here’s how he explains it:

As I read, reflected, and taught, I came to the conclusion that a more biblical theme for evaluation than either success or faithfulness is fruitfulness. Jesus, of course, told his disciples that they were to “bear much fruit” (John 15:8). Paul spoke even more specifically. He spoke of conversions as “fruit” when he desired to preach the gospel in Rome “that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles” (Rom 1:13 KJV). Paul also spoke of the “fruit” of godly character that a minister can see growing in Christians under his care. This included the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22). Good deeds, such as mercy to the poor, are called “fruit” as well (Rom 15:28).

Paul spoke of the pastoral nurture of congregations as a form of gardening. He told the Corinthian Christians they were God’s field” in which some ministers planted, some watered and some reaped (1 Cor 3:9). The gardening metaphor shows that . . . [g]ardeners must be faithful in their work, but they must also be skillful, or the garden will fail. Yet in the end, the degree of the success of the garden (or the ministry) is determined by factors beyond the control of the gardener. The level of fruitfulness varies due to “soil conditions” (that is, some groups o fpeople have a greater hardness of heart than others) and “weather conditions” (that is, the work of God’s sovereign Spirit) as well. (Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City, pp. 13-14)

This is a tremendously helpful corrective and one that I trust will be an encouragement to many who struggle in this regard. It completely changes how we evaluate what we do. It’s not a matter of just how faithful or godly a minister is, anymore than it’s about how many people are showing up on a Sunday morning. And best of all, it takes the wrong pressures off of pastors and leaders who are competent and faithful. “When fruitfulness is our criterion for evaluation, we are held accountable but not crushed by the expectation that a certain number of lives will be changed dramatically under our ministry.”

That’s good news, isn’t it?