Why bother with crowds?
Rembrandt: The Little Children Being Brought to Jesus
What’s your view on crowds?
One stream of missional thinking writes them off. The other adores them. One stream rejects “attractional” ministry as a denial of discipleship. The other measures success by growing numbers—people and offerings.
The funny thing is both streams look to Jesus to validate their position. How can they do that?
According to the gospels, wherever Jesus turned up, crowds would gather. He captivated them by this teaching, even if they didn’t fully understand it. He amazed them with his displays of healing. They believed him to be a prophet, maybe the Messiah.
The religious leaders regarded the crowds with contempt. Jesus wept for them. He saw the crowds as sheep without a shepherd, the object of the Father’s love. They were the object of his mission. He had a strategy to attract and reach the crowds.
Yet Jesus never identified the crowds with his band of disciples. It was the crowds who called for his crucifixion. He knew their faith was fickle.
“The crowds stand between agreement and mistrust, between acceptance and rejection—they are the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’. This is the reason why Jesus had compassion on them.” (Schnabel, 242)Two lessons for church planting movements:
Firstly, you better have a strategy to reach the crowds. Jesus’ heart aches for them, whether they’re poor or middle class, ignorant or educated, hedonistic or religious, reactionary or cool. Jesus sent his disciples into the crowds to preach the gospel with power. He’s still in the sending business.
Secondly, numbers mean nothing if you’re not making disciples. Crowds come and go. Put your trust in them, and they’ll they want to make you king one day and crucify you the next.
So why bother with the crowds? Jesus did.
