The “Crowd” is a term likely coined by Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Church. Thumma and Travis find in their research that the way a church deals with the Crowd is likely the most telling characteristic of a megachurch. In their research, it’s the most powerful driver of church growth.
All churches have a Crowd — its the people who attend who aren’t really a part of things. They may be believers. Or not. They may be just checking the congregation out. Some may be very regular in their attendance. But the Crowd isn’t really involved in the life of the church.
The megachurch approach is to be very strict as to those who’ve made a commitment to the church (the Core and the Committed), but very liberal — “gracious” might be a better word — to the Crowd.
The Crowd is offered sermons on grace and second chances. Because many in the Crowd have some church experience in their background, they are invited to return to a forgiving, welcoming Jesus.
However, the leadership of the church works diligently to move the Crowd to become part of the committed community. This typically means agreeing to regular worship attendance, participation in a small group, and involvement in church ministry.
In some churches, the sermons push small groups over and over. In others, the Crowd is urged to sign up for a Membership 101 class. But one way or another, the church (a) has a method of moving the Crowd toward commitment and (b) diligently works to move people in that direction.
It’s plainly taught that although Jesus is pleased and ready to forgive, Jesus also wants our commitment. He wants us to mature. And he wants us to serve.
As result, many megachurches have a dual identity — extravagant grace for the Crowd and demands for commitment and service for the Committed. But there’s no hypocrisy in this. In fact, it’s good theology.
God offers us incomprehensible forgiveness, but he expects, well, everything. The same Jesus who taught the Parable of the Prodigal Son also said,
(Matt. 10:37-39) “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
The difference between the megachurch approach and the traditional approach is that the traditional approach starts with salvation. Once you’re baptized, you belong in church and you’re ready for instruction.
The megachurch welcomes the world to its services. Come, worship! Join in our fellowship! Learn about Jesus! The megachurch assumes that, once the gospel is preached, people will readily move toward ever greater commitment.
Baptism becomes, therefore, not the endpoint, but one of many steps in the journey. Obviously, it’s a critically important step, but it’s neither the beginning nor the end.
And this is the mistake traditional churches often make. In fact, among Churches of Christ, we are so focused on baptism that we often assume that our job is to get people baptized, and that the path to baptism is sound doctrine. And so, once someone is baptized, we figure we’re done.
Sound doctrine is, of course, very, very important. But maybe a better path to salvation is the extravagant love of the community. Invite the lost in, lift Jesus up through just being body of Christ, and watch people respond. Once they fall in love with Jesus, the rest is easy.
(Matt. 22:2-10) “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. …
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
[PS — Beginning with this post, I’ll be posting daily for a while, until this series is complete and we move to the next topic. I’m just anxious to get to the conclusion.]
