Here are USA/Canada basic stats for the Church of the Nazarene: There are 78 Districts, 4,316 churches,11,103 elders, 2,134 district licensed ministers, 515 deacons and 364,029 worshipping the Lord every week. That means the total of elders, deacons and district licensed ministers is 13,752 clergy. When crunching those numbers that means, there is: 

• One clergyperson for every 27 people who are showing up on a Sunday morning. 
• There were 21987 baptisms last year or one clergyperson for a little over one and a half baptisms. 
• 19466 people were received into membership by profession of faith (not a sheep changing pastures but a new believer) or one clergyperson for a little under one and a half of those new believers. 

Permission to write freely: These are not great numbers. I know the attendance numbers have increased the last two years. That’s good.  First time in 50 years (or something like that) that USA/Canada has had two consecutive years of growth. Good. Good. Double good! But crunching the numbers a little more shows some things that aren’t totally great. 

What are the 13,752 pastors doing?  Seriously? What. Are. We. Doing. (I’ve put myself in this discussion because I am one of those 13,752 clergypersons). 

I’m not sure how many of the 13,752 clergy are unable to serve in any meaningful way. Maybe they are in a nursing home or too sick to lead a person to Jesus. Sometimes, where a person is serving is difficult. It’s not fertile ground. Didn’t Elmer F. Schmelzenbach go years and years before his first convert in Africa?  So maybe some of my clergy brothers and sisters might be in tough circumstances. I get it. It’s not always easy.

But come on… Not even two baptisms per pastor?  Less than that of those who led a person to start following Jesus. If I didn’t know better, I’d say there is an evangelism problem amongst me and my fellow pastors. Could I say it this way, the numbers show a lack of evangelistic furfur amongst the clergy in the USA/Canada region. Again, there are spots where true evangelism is happening. A few churches here and there are doing great things for the Kingdom. At a recent district assembly, it was reported that nearly half of that district’s baptisms were from one church. Hooray for that that one church, but to the rest of us, I want to say, “C’mon!  Get Going!” 

Obviously, it’s not all on the pastors to do all the evangelizing in a church. We are protestants after all. We still believe in the priesthood of all believers. But if there are 13,000+ clergy, wouldn’t you think that there would be a higher percentage of converts? We still believe that people are hurting, lonely, and lost. We still believe that Jesus is the answer. We still believe that without Him people are eternally doomed. Where’s the urgency?

I’m praying that in my new role with the Nazarene Bible College and in creating a Center to help pastors, that I will be available to make a difference. I hope to help lead in evangelism, holiness, integrity, connectivity, generosity, and stewardship. Good News for pastors: Help is on the way (in other words).

In the meantime, my fellow pastors, can we make it a goal, a personal goal, to win and baptize two, just two people in the coming year. Imagine if we set the example and folks in our churches started following suit, and they started to pray and then evangelize a person or two who doesn’t know Jesus. Do you know what will happen? Revival just might break out. Set the example pastors!  Let’s reach people for Jesus! Let’s pray for revival!