| Drawing Crowds | ||
| World Harvest Church > About Us > Worship |
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| The crowd is the responsive people from your community. Your chief responsibility towards the crowd is to draw them into the Church as soon as possible. • Responsive people from all places were drawn to Jesus since the beginning (see Matthew 4:25). They followed Him everywhere He taught and ministered (see Matthew 13:2) and honored Him highly until the end (see Matthew 21:7-9). • Jesus drew the crowd in three ways: cared for them, ministered to their needs, and gave them practicable teachings (see Matthew 9:36; 15:30-31; 13:34). 1. Love and care for the crowd Love draws people like a powerful magnet. Hearts are responsive to love. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd (Matthew 9:36 NKJV). • Christ had compassion for their emotional and spiritual needs. When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick (Matthew 14:13-14 NKJV). • He showed compassion also for their physical needs. a. Create an atmosphere of acceptance The right climate for a church to draw people is acceptance and love. • Your passion for the lost must become loving actions that they can appreciate. • To make an impact on visitors, love must be expressed in a practical way. Be a loving church for receiving them. Members, Interns, Cell Leaders, and Pastors must always show loving behavior toward the newcomers instead of focusing their love toward one another. b. Spiritual leadership must be loving Interns, Cell Leaders, Section Overseers, and Pastors set the tone and atmosphere of the church. When people know that you love them, they listen to you. Otherwise, they will ignore or disbelieve what you say. • To personally greet as many people as you can before and after seeker meetings, Fellowship Cell, and Praise Celebration is the best way to warm up the crowd. Remembering names shows you are interested in them. • Behind every smile is a hidden hurt that a simple expression of love may heal. Many people are starving for the affirmation of a loving handshake (or hug, if it is appropriate and acceptable). • Use warm, personal style in phoning or writing to visitors. You need to get up close to people to love, influence, and impress them. c. Accepting without approving You are called to accept and love people without approving their sinful lifestyles. • Jesus showed love and acceptance to the Samaritan woman at the well without approving of her licentious lifestyle. He ate with Zacchaeus without approving of his dishonesty. He defended the dignity of the woman caught in adultery without minimizing her sin. • Responsive people of the crowd level are not subjected to the moral conduct expected of the believers (see 1 Corinthians 5:9-12). Sanctification comes after receiving salvation. Expect them to get rid of their sinful habits or change their lifestyle to that of a believer only after they have received Christ as Savior. 2. Minister to their current needs God uses all kinds of human needs to get the attention of people. Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel (Matthew 15:30-31 NKJV). • People crowded around Jesus because He ministered to their needs—physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, and financial. He treated each needy person with dignity and respect. a. Offer services only Christians can give Ministry is meeting needs with God's power in Jesus' name. • A church can capture the attention of the crowd by offering them things which they cannot get anywhere else. They need love, acceptance, forgiveness, and a purpose for living. They want freedom from fear, guilt, worry, discouragement, and loneliness. • Frequent testimony of how Christ has transformed lives is the most effective way of advertising your church to the community. The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus to meet six types of needs (see Luke 4:18-19): • Salvation for the spiritually poor, restoration for the broken hearted, renewal for captives of the world, healing for the sick, deliverance for the oppressed, and providence for the needy. • Once you are born again, the 'Savior, Restorer, Renewer, Healer, Deliverer and Provider' lives in you (see Galatians 2:20) and you can access His anointing to minister salvation, restoration, renewal, healing, deliverance, and providence. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things (1 John 2:20 NKJV). • 'The Holy One' is Christ. Peter reprimanded the Jews who had given Jesus to be crucified as denying 'the Holy One' (see Acts 3:13-14). 'Have' means access rather than having sole ownership. You have access to Christ's anointing when you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:5, 8). 1 John addresses all believers at all times. All Christians can access Christ's anointing. Conduct seeker meetings with preachings revolving around these six areas. • A need met in the anointing of Christ opens up a person to the gospel. • Songs and music for worship must be seeker sensitive. Arrange people to share testimonies of salvation, healings, transformation, deliverance or miracles. You must always give altar call for people to receive salvation or to be ministered to. • Seeker services will succeed when a church has built a culture of evangelizing the community and is seeing a constant inflow of crowd. The Holy Spirit gives twelve ministry-gifts for us to establish into effective ministries for meeting needs (1 Corinthians 12:27-28; Romans 12:6-8). These gifts operated in proper combinations can bring God's love and power to the community. • The gifts of showing mercy, giving, helps, leadership, and administration are most suitable for establishing orphanages, half-way houses, and reform homes. • The gifts of miracles, gifts of healings, ministry, exhortation, and showing mercy, when put together are suitable for healing, recovery, and deliverance services. • The gifts of prophecy, ministry, teaching, and exhortation, when put together are good for counseling problem-children, misconduct of youths, broken marriages, homes, and people in crises. b. Provide caring services and activities Organize caring services and activities for the responsive people. • God especially rewards your care for the uncared and love for the unloved (see Matthew 25:34-36). Some caring services a church can offer the community to call for help. • Family Careline: Counseling for marriage, home life, and raising up children; Visitation for the sick and needy; Legal aid services for abused wives, abused children; After-school tuition for children of needy homes. • New workers Careline: Advice for new graduates who need guidance and help for job interviews; Advice for handling challenges and problems at work place. • College/University Student Careline: Visitation for the sick; Help for renting rooms and apartments; Help in settling new students: Boy-girl relationship counseling; Advises for difficulties in study; Directions in the city. • Teens Careline: Advice on handling examination stress, peer pressure, and boy-girl relationship; Help in questions about life, difficulty in study, usage of time, self image, and ambition. c. Special Interest Groups Organize interest groups to show the love of God to people in creative, friendly, and loving ways. • Matthew invited other tax collectors to a banquet soon after he had started to follow Jesus (see Luke 5:27-32). The goal of the banquet was for the Lord to call sinners to repentance. • College and university students are interested in songs and music. They want to improve their English. • Graduates are concerned of jobs, income, acceptance, and career. • The middle and the late twenties are very interested in boy-girl-relationship. • Young parents are concerned of child-care, schooling, and home. • Provide lessons on guitar, music, vocal, photography, soft-wares, swimming, badminton, tennis, physical fitness, etc. • Run courses on conversation-English, conversation-Mandarin, homemaking, raising up children, cooking, interior decoration, etc. • Self-improvement courses on: A successful marriage, Personality development, Overcome loneliness, Choose the right career, Choose a marriage partner. 3. Give them practicable teachings Jesus attracted crowds by teaching in a practical, interesting way • People are interested in doctrines when they are relevant to their lives. • To capture the attention of an uninterested crowd you must tie your message to one of the three 'attention getters': things they value, things that are unique, and things that threaten them. All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them (Matthew 13:34 NKJV). • He told stories to make a point. Three benefits of using stories to communicate spiritual truth are: stories hold people's attention, stories stir their emotions, and stories help them remember. Jesus used simple language, not technical or theological jargon. • He spoke in terms that normal people could understand. • He taught profound truths in a simple way that people understood the value and benefit of what He was saying. Jesus spoke to their current needs. • His preaching began with needs, hurts, and interests. He taught in response to a question or a pressing problem from someone in the crowd. He offered people what they are frantically searching for: forgiveness, freedom, security, purpose, love, acceptance, and strength. • Start from where people are and move them to where you want them to be. People are looking for hope, help, and encouragement. By beginning with their needs, you can immediately gain the attention of your crowd. Jesus initiated teaching the crowd and invited them to respond to the truth. • He introduced spiritual truth to people who were ignorant (see John 7:37) and offered relief to those who carried burdens (see Matthew 11:28). • You must initiate talking with a person on spiritual matters or God to open up his awareness. Listen to his answers to find out how little he knows your belief. • What does he know about problems in lives in relation to the spiritual realm? • What does he know about good life in relation to the spiritual realm? • What does he know about evils and sufferings in relation to the spiritual realm? • What does he know about his life in relation to the eternal future? • What does he know about relating and experiencing God? • What does he know about letting God use his life to touch other lives? |
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