Body Count | Bridget Marcus

Body count. We all know what the younger generation means by this term. It normally means how many a person has slept with in their lifetime so far. But lately, when I look at modern Christian culture, I see a different kind of body count being celebrated.

Are we more focused on growth in numbers than growth in spiritual fruit? A packed room does not mean much if people come in and leave the same way they arrived, broken, discouraged, full of shame and condemnation, unheard, without accountability, and unsure of their identity as sons and daughters of God.

Do we really know who is sitting in the seats on Sunday, or do we just think we do?

This is why family matters. Real family. A body that functions as a unit. Discipleship was never meant to be a one person show. It requires walking together, pouring into one another, and staying connected beyond an altar moment. We love to count how many souls were saved or baptized, and I will go a step further, sometimes even deciding who gets that opportunity. But how often do we count how many actually stayed? How many were truly discipled? How many were poured into individually? How many grew in faith, maturity, and spiritual fruit and then went out to be the Church?

Or were we already focused on the next person to add to the body count?

Then we wonder why people fall back into brokenness after we watched God move in their life at the beginning. We cannot abandon people at the baptism. Those still on the milk need guidance, covering, and love.

When we stop counting numbers and start caring for people, the ones God Himself has sent, everything shifts. Teach people what it means to let God heal them. What it means to live from beloved identity instead of orphan striving. Help them discover their gifts and how to use them in healthy, God intended ways, not for performance or attention.

Teach them how to sit at His feet.Show them it is not about a microphone or a following.

Genuinely love the people God has entrusted to you and stop keeping body count.

God already knows the numbers.He keeps His own book.

-Bridget Nicole

Edited to add: No, we are not responsible for someone’s personal spiritual growth. That choice belongs to them. But we are responsible for making discipleship available and accessible to every person who walks through the door.