I’ve lost 4 followers in the last week.
*sigh*
I shouldn’t sigh. I shouldn’t even be concerned really. I don’t do this for numbers or hits. I write to share my faith, my life and other random things I think about that I probably shouldn’t share but do anyhow. I write to maintain my skills during dry seasons in ministry. I write and sometimes erase just to vent. Followers aren’t really part of the equation, at least they aren’t when things are going up. When they go down though I notice and wonder if it’s something I said, or did, or didn’t do.
On some level this is something we all worry about, isn’t it? If we’re in ministry we worry about numbers and attendance. In the working world we seek to make connections and friends. Networking and people go hand in hand in the modern world and numbers equal success (or so we are told). When someone stops attending their vacant seat in the pew is a glaring notification of their absence. A dropped subscriber is noticed. We don’t wish to fail.
Jesus knows a little something about followers though and he got me to thinking today when I was questioning everything I know to be true about blogging. When we look at Jesus’ ministry, we see a man who started with just himself and eventually was preaching to crowds well into the thousands. In the final week of his life, he went from having a parade thrown in his honor to having been abandoned by all but a handful of his closest friends. Yet still, in the midst of it all he persisted and moved forward with his mission. When Sunday came, when he stepped out of that tomb he knew he some would come back and some would not but ultimately he had accomplished what he was sent to do and that was what was important. It wasn’t about followers, it was about people and the message.
As Church people (and as bloggers) we need to remember this. It isn’t the size of your subscriber list or the number of people in the pews that matters. What matters is the life you are living, the service you are doing and the mission God has given you. If you are living your life in accordance with what God wants, if your worshipping community is focussed on the Gospel and shining a light into the world, God-things will happen. Size isn’t everything, it’s the substance that counts.
While it always hurts when people move on, my blog isn’t about my followers it’s about shining a light into the world to whoever happens to pop in. It isn’t about me, it’s about God and isn’t that the most important thing? Whatever we do, no matter how big or how small should all be about God and regardless of how big or little I become I shall endeavor to make this blog just that.
