Decoding Discipleship Myths: Attendance equals growth

A little note about the series: This article is part of a multi-part series regarding myths relating to discipleship and spiritual growth. While each article will be able to stand alone it will be important to read all in the series. Far too many myths exist within the church about what it means to grow spiritually and how a church facilitates that growth. The goal of these articles is to identify those myths and give thought to how to possibly overcome those myths within your organization.

Attendance equals growth

Understanding the myth

A fundamentally flawed assumption within churches is that presence at worship service, small group/Sunday school, and/or group bible study will equate to spiritual growth. Some churches even celebrate “perfect attendance” awards as if it is evidence of the spiritual maturity of the individual. It is a deeply flawed belief. Equating class attendance with spiritual growth will leave both the individual and the church immensely frustrated. While attendance is necessary it should not be used as a barometer of spiritual growth. Checking the attendance box every Sunday does not immediately lead to spiritual growth.

A subset, or related, version of this myth is the idea that attendance equals success. Drawing a crowd is never an indicator of quality, or spiritual vitality. A crowd is just a crowd. At times Jesus drew large crowds and at other times He made direct statements that discouraged the crowds in ways that they abandoned following Him. And the flip side of that is that a lack of crowd doesn’t mean much either. Success in God’s eyes doesn’t look the same as man’s eyes. 

Attendance does matter

It is not the case that all attendance should be thrown out the door. However, any use of attendance as an indicator of spiritual growth should be avoided. Just because you can draw a crowd doesn’t mean any real growth is taking place. Attendance is a wonderful indicator of whether or not people are caring about what is happening. Attendance is not directly proportional to growth. It just doesn’t happen that way. Keep attendance in a proper perspective. Not THE perspective. If a family stops attending suddenly it should be noticed and someone should be reaching out. That is part of caring about people.

The issue is that mere presence doesn’t mean understanding, development, or application. Plenty of people were present with Jesus without every experiencing true heart change and becoming followers of Him. Plenty of people today can attend a service, or group on Sunday and even be there for Wednesday bible study classes but never see the power of the Holy Spirit pierce through to their hearts. It is a fallacy to presume that ongoing, and even increased, attendance by an individual leads to spiritual growth. It simply does not work that way. Basing your impact on an attendance figure will develop a false sense of security. 

The end result of an attendance based discipleship program will be a biblically weak, shallow, and illiterate group of people. The great problem will be that they will think they are spiritually strong because of their consistent attendance. Crisis, hard times, or persecution will wither their faith away and they will cease to be a productive part of the community. They will even fall away from faith completely. Or worse, they will stay and spread dissension and false beliefs because they don’t know any better.

What if you took a different approach?

What if it wasn’t just about attendance?

What if it was about resources?

What if you scaled back the number of nights families were expected to be in attendance?
Spiritual growth doesn’t develope out of just presence at something, a group, a study, or a weekend event. Spiritual growth develops out of ongoing surrender and trust in God’s great story. Attendance doesn’t transform a heart, only God can do that. Why not take stock of how your organization measures and utilizes the statistic of attendance? What are your core assumptions in relation to it? How are they healthy? How are they unhealthy? How could you facilitate spiritual growth in a family without making them come to an event? It begins with letting go fo the myth that attendance equals spiritual growth in the life of the believer.