Can Numbers Become More Important than People?

By reglerjoe

A True Story of What Happens When Results Are All That Matter


One crucial area that needs reforming among many IFB churches is baptism. We have the mode correct, but the why's are often outside biblical parameters.

So many fundamental Baptists treat their ministry's baptisms as a product that they can manufacture - the more you produce, the more successful your business...er...church. There are not a few IFB pastors' conferences that provide lessons as to organize and execute your baptismal practices like an assembly line. The result? More. Faster.

But is that really what we want?

Is that what the Lord wants?

Let me share with you a personal experience of mine that perfectly illustrates what happens when numbers, and not people, are all that matter:

During my Bible college tenure, I was a worker in a large bus ministry. Our bus ministry would have special “project outreach” Saturdays (which being interpreted means we were going to the inner-city ghettos to hold baptizing services in order to boost our church’s baptism numbers).

Here’s how it always played out: We would secure the usage of a local, inner city church near the government project buildings where we would be focusing our evangelistic efforts. We would break up into several teams, go door-to-door through the projects, inviting the kids to a “special service”, and then we would come later and round them up on the buses. They would be driven to the local church where they were treated to a short 20 minute service. The gospel was hurriedly preached (no exaggeration) and the children, teens, and even some adults would then be “led to the Lord.” Having been ushered through the sinner's prayer and their decision cards filled out, they were whisked away to the changing rooms and readied for baptism. It was not uncommon for children as young as 5 (or possibly younger) to be baptized. When all was said and done, my fellow bus workers and I would rejoice in the many (sometimes more than 200) baptisms we secured that day (and this we did several times a year).

But during one of these baptism blitzkriegs something happened that began to show me that numbers, and not the Gospel, was the real focus of our "Project Outreach". The enlightening experience was a very brief conversation I had with a little 8 or 9 year old boy.

I had knocked on his door to invite his family to our "special service". I’ll never forget his response. As he opened the door, and saw me (a white boy wearing a tie and toting a Bible) he rolled his eyes and exclaimed, “Oh man! Do I have to get baptized AGAIN?”

It was clear from his immediate response that he had been subjected to the “results manufacturer” not once, but several times. And I, in my IFB uniform, represented not a Gospel preacher, nor a caring Christian, but somebody whose only purpose was to get him in the baptismal waters.

I was ashamed and emabarrassed.

His childlike innocence and honesty cut me to the core of my heart. “No, buddy, don’t worry about it. You can stay home,” was all I could think to say. Project Outreach Saturdays would never be the same to me. I began to see them for what they really were. Unfortunately, my dedication to leadership and the fear of being stigmatized as a critic kept me from voicing my concerns.

What a tragedy that this treatment of baptism is promoted and applauded within some IFB circles. We, who proudly take the name “Baptist” as a badge of honor, have cheapened the sacredness of baptism and abused the theology behind it. Our Baptist forefathers did not die for the biblical doctrine of baptism so that their spiritual posterity could turn it into some circus sideshow, or a means by which we could show-up the other churches.

IFB celeb preachers reveal the truth in all of this when they defend the philosophy of results manufacturing from behind the pulpit with such outrageous and unbiblical statements such as, “A new convert doesn’t need to understand baptism, they just need to do it!” or “They can learn the importance of baptism later - just get them in the water!” Basically, many IFB preacher boys are taught that the new convert shouldn’t ask if they are ready to be baptized, they should just be told to do it. Thus, obedience in the matter of baptism is changed from inner submission to outward conformity.

Of course, I’m sure all of the pastors of large and influential churches who engage in results manufacturing will deny these statements and accuse me of exaggerating a few isolated instances. For them to admit the error of their ways would require them to apologize to their people for wasting their time and money in the frivolous and pride-fueled endeavor of getting more baptism numbers. The standard defense is, “We believe numbers are important because every number represents a soul!” That statement is as transparent as I was to that little boy mentioned above. It’s not about their souls, or else we would have been more thorough in our witnessing and more careful in our baptizing and more diligent in our follow-up. It’s about the numbers – being bigger, better, and faster growing than everybody else.

Despite what others may say, numbers can, and often do, become more important than people.

I know it. I've seen it. And that little ghetto-bound boy knows it too. We treated him like a statistic, not a soul.