I Hate Church Lists

Why is it that some Christians and organizations feel the need to rate churches and pastors on various lists. There's the 50 Most Influential Churches list, the 100 Fastest Growing Churches list, and now we get the 25 Most Innovative Churches.

Lists like these only serve to draw comparisons, to raise pastors to Christian-Culture icon status (even if they don't want it), and to create copycat churches. I'm all for learning from other churches, founding out how different local churches are affecting their communities, how various church bodies are reaching people with the good news about Christ, and being inspired by other church families that are doing great things for the Kingdom. But I don't need the comparing, the rating, the worldly approach to gathering this helpful information.

I just struggle so much to imagine Jesus putting together a list like this. Even in the Book of Revelation when Christ talks directly to 7 different churches, he doesn't compare them to one another, he addresses them individually on their own merits and confronts them straight up.

I encourage you as a young adult to not engage in church comparisons (or pastor comparisons for that matter). It's hard, but it's not fair. Each local church (and pastor) is accountable to God, and each is reaching different people in different ways and expressing worship of God differently. Let the world have their lists to argue about, and let's live differently as Christ-followers.