One of the inevitable conversation moments that occurs when pastors (particularly church planters) gather is the question of size. How big is your church? Certainly there are times when size helps determine context, but often it seems to establish a pecking order among who hopes to learn from whom. The same can be said for blogging. I was talking to one recovering addict recently who started blogging and became addicted to it. Unfortunately, he wasn't addicted to the writing portion, but to the stats. How many people have commented? How many unique visitors today? What can I do to get more? His sense of worth (and right-standing) was determined by these numbers.
It made me realize how quick I am to be proud and want to talk about the areas I'm having 'success' (as I define it of course.) If the attendance from Sunday was low, maybe I had a big week at work, or I'll have a good blogging week, a post gets a lot of attention or I get mentioned by a few other bloggers who link to me. These things help me feel better. It is sad how quickly we turn to functional Messiah's other than Jesus, the only one who truly can give us a righteousness that is perfect. It is only through this gospel living that we can be truly humble and yet more courageous. Daily I need to go read Preaching the Gospel to Myself.
