Have you ever been asked, "How big is your church?"  My typical response is, "I'm not sure, maybe 20 thousand square feet."  Of course they are asking how many people attend your church, more importantly, how many students attend your youth ministry?  This is an important question, of course, because the more kids you have the better youth pastor you are.  I've been to many youth ministry conferences and been asked many times, "How many kids do you have?"  I really don't like this question.  It feels like someone asking, "How many head of cattle do you have?  How big is your ranch?  What's your volume?"
    And there's typically 3 types of responses.  First, there's the people with the big groups, the hundred plus.  The ones that ask you how many students you have just so they can tell you how many they have.  To these guys I want to say, "That's cool that you are sitting in on this session, when are you teaching?"  or simply reply with, "Yeah, but my wife is hotter."  The second response is the apologetic response with an addendum.  Something like, "Well, we only have 10 or 15 kids but... (choose one of the following a) we're from a small church b) I just started c) we're across the street from Saddleback d) my last church ran 250 and I came to fix this one).  Finally, the third response is a small number with attitude.  "Yeah, we have 20 kids, y'know, kids keep coming but we send them to other churches because we don't want to get big and impersonal like those "other" ministries."
     So I've explained the evil, where's the necessary?  Here's the bottom line, Jesus said that we can judge a tree by it's fruit.  There comes a time that we need to look at our attendance and see what is our fruit?  Are you at the exact same number of students that you were 5 years ago?  Are you at less?  It's not about the numbers, I fully agree with that statement.  On the other hand, I can't escape the fact that God is in the business of changing lives and giving life, and if you are experience life-giving life-change in your ministry, shouldn't people be attracted to that?  Shouldn't you be growing?
     With that said, I also need to say that numbers is not the only quantifiable growth.  Your group may not be growing no matter what you are doing right, and it may grow no matter what you are doing wrong.  It's not only about the attendance but you need to look at your other fruit.  Are kids growing closer to God?  Are you?  Are they growing deeper in their faith and understanding?  Are you developing leaders sold out to God's vision for your ministry?  Are kids more interested in their Bibles?  Is your teaching growing?  Are people more engaged and connected than a year ago?  Do kids have the opportunity to serve?  Are students sharing their faith with others?  Are you?
     As always, I would LOVE to hear your feedback!  How many do you run?