WHERE ARE THE CROWDS?

Jesus never asked, “How do I attract a crowd?” But this is a question that is very much on the minds of pastors and leaders today. The average attendance for 177,000 churches in the United States (60 percent of all churches) is less than 99 per week. Our culture has inappropriately glorified the importance of the “mega-church” and inadvertently hurt and frustrated many pastors. Pastors of smaller churches are made to feel that if they can’t build a church running in the hundreds or thousands then they’re failures! Our cultural preoccupation with numbers, growth and size has caused many to forget that the church’s primary mission is about reaching and ministering to people.

In the average American city, the population density is very close to 4,000 per square mile. In some of the megacities, the density reaches about 26,000 per square mile. What this means, in most communities, is that within a one-mile radius of every church, about 16,000 people live.

A poll on church attendance conducted by ABC Television several years ago concluded that 65 percent of Americans never attend church. I live in an area that is considered to be the “buckle of the Bible Belt.” According to the latest statistics in Collin County, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), just under 65 percent of the people have no church affiliation and on an average Sunday, only about 19 percent of my neighbors attend a church of any kind. In California and Florida, the number of people weekly attending church falls to about 14 percent and when you factor in age, you find that the younger people are, the less inclined they are to attend.

Not really encouraging stats! What they tell us is that the church is losing the battle for people and the nation is becoming increasingly secular.

So why did I make the statement that Jesus never asked, “How do I attract a crowd?” Because He never did ask it; He knew all along where they were. They were in the same place in His day as they are in ours.

Matthew 9:35-38 “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’”

Jesus never waited for the people to come to Him. A few times they did so, but mostly He went to them where they lived, into their homes, to their weddings, into their marketplaces, and He engaged them in ministry where they were.

Jesus did this because He actually cared about people. “He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”

So where are the crowds for your church, the one you attend? I believe that most of them are within one or two miles of your church facility. The issue is not where they are, but how we are going to reach to them.

Has heaven stopped being the source of creativity for us? I don’t think so! Why not ask Him about some creative ways for you and your church to use to show your community what real Christian love and compassion is. A church in our area recently had a special night to reach out to single mothers. They got the word out and dozens of young mothers who had no connection with their church showed up on a Monday night. The single moms were warmly greeted in the parking lot by members of the church who showed them where to park and escorted them inside. The church’s multi-purpose room had been turned into a salon/spa for the evening with stylists who washed, cut and styled their hair and others who helped them with their make-up. Every visitor was given a gift bag with all sorts of personal grooming goodies in it. They all were made to feel very welcome and were shown that this church cared about them and was there for them and their children.

If Jesus could go to their weddings, eat at their tables, engage prostitutes, adulterers and cheats in conversation that leads to ministry, then surely we can do the same.

Let me leave you with one more statistic to finish this boring treatise. Dr. Thom Ranier in his book, “The Unchurched Next Door,” gives the most startling statistic of all. Dr. Ranier’s research team talked with people who never attend church. One of the questions asked was, “Would you consider attending church?” Eighty percent replied, “Yes, I would consider attending, if only somebody would ask me!” The vast majority indicated that they would not respond to media advertising but they would give careful consideration to a personal invitation from a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, a schoolmate, someone who would personally talk to them.

So where are the crowds? Where they’ve always been—right outside your door!