“It is easy to have a big crowd, but I am trying to build a congregation.”

I’ve heard dozens of preachers say something like that in a sermon. They talk about churches with larger attendance and then offer that line as an explanation. The implication is that something more spiritual is at work in their smaller church and that, somehow, being small is evidence of being more faithful.

Let me tell you something: building a crowd is incredibly hard.

Ask any new comedian or aspiring musician. Getting people to show up takes charisma and connection. It takes communication, advertising, excitement, evaluation, and continual improvement. It requires offering something people value, and that meets a real need in their lives.

I’ve spent the last twelve years leading one church, and it’s taken intense work every year to get to the point where we are beginning to generate a crowd.

And now, people are coming. It is incredibly exciting, but it wasn’t easy.

I believe the first challenge is to build a crowd so we have the opportunity to impact people for Jesus. Then we can build a congregation.

A crowd gives us people to disciple. A congregation gives those people a place to belong. From there, we can teach them, lead them toward a deeper relationship with Jesus, and help them develop deeper relationships with one another.

Crowds were never the goal. People are the goal.

So I thank God that He is blessing our work and sending us more and more people. I don’t take that lightly. I see every new person who walks through our doors as a divine opportunity.

The crowd isn’t the destination. It is the opportunity.

And now that God is giving us a crowd, our responsibility is to build something great for Jesus.