It's Crowded In Here!

“A large crowd came to him and he began to teach them.”
                                                                                            -Mark 2:13-

Want to do an interesting Bible study? Just check out how many times the gospels refer to the idea of crowds gathering around Jesus everywhere he went. I recently did that with the book of Mark. Twenty four times Mark refers to large crowds that just seemed to appear whenever Jesus was around. Seems kind of like a pattern doesn’t it? Whenever Jesus is around, crowds show up.

Guess what? A crowd showed up last weekend! Since then I’ve talked with several pastor friends who have asked, “What did you do?” I haven’t been quite able to answer that question yet. I mean, we did the usual things we do for a big day. We prayed. We prepared. We advertised. We invited. All the things we’ve always done. And crowds have come before. But not with the results we saw this weekend.

So here’s what I’m thinking. You’ve heard me say it over and over – we’re about one thing here at NHC – JESUS! We worship Jesus. We preach Jesus. We encourage others to surrender to Jesus. It’s all about Jesus and Jesus draws a crowd.

People often look at churches like ours and say that people come because of the style of music, the way we dress, or worse things like we’re watering down the gospel or that we’re weak on sin. But I think they’re missing something. All over the country this past weekend churches like ours experienced a surge in attendance with thousands of people receiving Christ. Maybe, just maybe they came for a different reason. Maybe they came because they somehow got the idea that they might meet Jesus there.

Today I’m praying for even bigger crowds! I’m praying that we have more traffic problems. (I’ve been telling you to get here early!) I’m praying that Jesus is always found at NHC in such a way that people know they can find him here. Thank you Jesus for drawing a crowd!!