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How Jesus Attracted Crowds
Enormous crowds followed him wherever he went.
Matthew 4:25 (LB)
The large crowd listened to him with delight.
Mark 12:37
One of the impressive characteristics of Jesus’ ministry was that it attracted crowds. Large crowds. Enormous crowds. The King James Version calls them “multitudes.” The crowds Jesus attracted were so huge that one time he was almost crushed by one (Luke 8:42). Seekers loved to listen to him and thronged to wherever he was, even if it meant traveling a long distance. When Jesus fed the 5,000, that number counted only the men (Matt. 14:21). When you add in the women and children who must have been there too, there may have been more than
15,000 in attendance at that service! Jesus’ ministry had a magnetic quality about it.
A Christlike ministry still attracts crowds. You don’t have to use gimmicks or compromise your convictions to gather a crowd. You don’t have to water down your message. I’ve even found that you don’t need a church building to draw a crowd! But you do have to minister to people the way Jesus did.
What attracted large crowds to Jesus’ ministry? Jesus did three things with crowds: He loved them (Matt. 9:36, et al.), he met their needs (Matt. 15:30; Luke 6:17–18; John 6:2, et al.), and he taught them in interesting and practical ways (Matt. 13:34; Mark 10:1; 12:37, et al.). These same three ingredients will attract crowds today.
Jesus AttractedCrowds by Loving Unbelievers
Jesus loved lost people and loved spending time with them. From the gospels, it is obvious that Jesus enjoyed being with seekers far more than being with religious leaders. He went to their parties and was called the “friend of sinners” (Luke 7:34). How many people would call you that?
People could feel that Jesus loved being with them. Even little children wanted to be around him, which speaks volumes about what kind of person he was. Children instinctively seem to gravitate toward loving, accepting people.
Loving unbelievers like Jesus did
Loving unbelievers the way Jesus did is the most overlooked key to growing a church. Without his passion for the lost, we will be unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to reach them.
The command to love is the most repeated command in the New Testament, appearing at least fifty-five times. If we don’t love people, nothing else matters. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). When I’ve asked the new converts I baptize what attracted them to our church family, I’ve never had anyone say, “It was because of the Reformation theology you believe” or “It was your beautiful buildings” or “It was your full calendar of activities.” Instead, the most common response was, “I felt an incredible spirit of love toward me that drew me in.”
Notice the focus of that statement. Our members’ love is focused toward newcomers, not just toward each other. I know of many churches where the members love each other, and they have great fellowship, but the churches are still dying because all the love is focused inwardly. The fellowship in these churches has become so tight that newcomers are unable to break into it. They don’t attract unbelievers because they don’t love unbelievers.
Of course, every congregation thinks their church is loving. That’s because the people who think it is unloving aren’t there! Ask typical members, and they will say, “Our church is very friendly and loving.” What they usually mean is, “We love each other. We are friendly and loving to the people
already here.” They love the people they feel comfortable with, but that warm fellowship doesn’t automatically translate into love for unbelievers and visitors.
Some churches point to their lack of a crowd as proof that they are biblical, orthodox, or Spirit-filled. They maintain that their small size is proof that they are a pure church, that they haven’t compromised their beliefs. It may actually mean they don’t love lost people enough to reach out to them. The honest reason many churches do not have a crowd is because they don’t want one! They don’t like having to relate to unbelievers and feel that attracting a crowd would disturb their comfortable routine. This kind of selfishness keeps a lot of churches fromgrowing.
Years ago Dean Kelly published research that showed churches grow because they are conservative in doctrine; they know what they believe and are not ashamed of it. I believe Kelly was only half right. There are many Bible-believing churches that are dying on the vine. Churches that grow are those who hold conservative beliefs and are loving to outsiders. Win Arn has done an exhaustive study that confirms this fact: Great churches are built on love—for God, for each other, and for unbelievers.
One of the primary reasons for Saddleback’s growth is that we love new people. We love visitors. We love the lost. For fifteen years I’ve watched our members express that love in practical ways: setting up and taking down chairs and Sunday
school equipment each weekend in temporary facilities, being willing to use seventy-nine different locations so the church could keep growing and reaching more people, parking off campus so visitors could have their parking spots, standing through packed-out services so visitors could have their seats, and even offering their coats to visitors on cold days in our tent.
It is a myth that large churches are always cold and impersonal, and that small churches are automatically warmand loving. Size has nothing to do with love or friendliness. The reason some churches remain small is because they aren’t loving. Love draws people in like a powerful magnet. A lack of love drives people away.
Creating an atmosphere of acceptance
Plants need the right climate to grow and so do churches. The right climate for church growth is an atmosphere of acceptance and love. Growing churches love; loving churches grow. It seems obvious, but it is often overlooked: For your church to grow you must be nice to people when they show up!
In the survey of the unchurched that I took prior to beginning Saddleback, the second most common complaint I discovered was “Church members are unfriendly to visitors. We feel we don’t fit.” Long before the pastor preaches, the visitors are already deciding whether or not they will come back. They are asking themselves, “Do I feel welcome here?”
At Saddleback we make every effort to counteract this complaint. We have thought through a strategy for creating a climate of love and acceptance that visitors can feel. We monitor our effectiveness on a weekly basis by asking firsttime visitors to give us their frank, anonymous, first impressions of our church.
When we mail each first-time visitor a “Thanks for being our guest” letter, we enclose a postage-paid “My First Impression” postcard. The card says, “Our church wants to serve you better, so would you please give us your opinion?” There are only three questions on the card: “What did you notice first?” “What did you like best?” “What did you like least?” We’ve now received thousands of these cards, and nearly 90 percent answer the first question with some variation of this sentence: “I noticed the warmth and friendliness of the people.” That response is not an accident. It is the result of an intentional strategy to express love to visitors in a manner that they can comprehend.
To make an impact on a visitor, love must be expressed in a practical way. Even if a church genuinely feels compassion for the unchurched, that compassion might not be being expressed in ways the unchurched understand. We must intentionally act in ways that demonstrate our love for visitors and for those who don’t know Christ. Love is more than a feeling; it is a behavior. It means being sensitive to someone else’s needs and putting them ahead of our own. In the next chapter I’ll suggest a number of practical ways we’ve done this at
The pastor must be loving
The pastor of a church sets the tone and atmosphere of the congregation. If you are a pastor and you want to know the warmth of your church, put the thermometer in your own mouth. I’ve visited some churches where the pastor’s lack of love is the main reason the church isn’t growing. Some pastors, by their cold demeanor and lack of personal warmth, virtually guarantee that visitors won’t come back. And in some larger churches, I’ve gotten the impression that the pastor loves audiences but doesn’t like people.
I often hear pastors enthusiastically admit, “I love to preach!” That never impresses me. It may just mean they enjoy the attention or adrenaline rush they feel from being in front of people. What I want to ask those pastors is this: Do you love the people you preach to? That is a far more important issue. The Bible says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). In God’s view, great preaching without love is just noise.
Every time I speak to the crowd service at Saddleback I repeat a simple reminder to myself. I never preach or teach without thinking this:
Father, I love you and you love me. I love these people and you love these people. Love these people through me.
This is not an audience to be feared, but a family to be loved.
There is no fear in love; perfect love casts out all fear.
Roger Ailes, communications consultant to Presidents Reagan and Bush, believes the most influential factor in public speaking is “likability.” If people like you, they’ll listen to you. If they don’t like you, they will ignore you or discount your message. How do you become likable? It’s simple: Love people. When people know you love them, they listen to you.
Let me suggest some practical ways that pastors can demonstrate love to the crowd.
Memorize names. Remembering names shows that you’re interested in people. Nothing sounds sweeter to a second-time visitor than hearing you use his or her name. While I don’t have a particularly good memory, I work hard at remembering names. In the early years of Saddleback, I took pictures of people and made flash cards to help me remember their names. I knew every person’s name in our church up to about 3,000 in attendance. After that my brain fried! I ask new members in the membership class to tell me their names on three different occasions to help me remember them. When you work hard at remembering people’s names, it pays great relational dividends.
Personally greet people before and after services. Be approachable. Don’t hide out in your study. For the first three years of our church, we met in a fenced-in high school where everyone had to exit through the same gate. Each week, I
personally greeted every person who came to our church. They couldn’t get out without passing by me!
One of the best ways to warm up a crowd is to meet as many people as you can before you speak to them. Get out among the crowd and talk to people. It shows you are interested in thempersonally.
Many pastors like to gather their staff or key leaders in a private room before the service and pray while the people are coming in. I believe you ought to pray for your service at some other time. Don’t miss an opportunity to be with people when you have the chance.
I have a prayer team of lay people that prays for me during each of our four services, and I spend extended time each week praying for our services. Our staff also prays together. But we do not have “Holy Huddles” before our services. We get only one shot a week to have contact with many of the people in our crowd, so when they come I want every staff member and every key lay leader interacting with people.
Touch people. Study the ministry of Jesus and you will see the powerful effect of giving people a look, a word, and a touch. At Saddleback we believe in a “high-touch” ministry. We give a lot of hugs and handshakes and pats on the back. Our world is filled with lonely people who are starving for the affirmation of a loving touch. Many individuals live by themselves and have told me the only loving physical contact they ever get is at church. When I hug somebody on Sunday
morning I often wonder how long that hug will have to last them.
I recently got this note on a registration card: “Pastor Rick, I can’t tell you what it meant to me when you put your arm around me in comfort today. I felt as though Jesus was hugging me in such compassion and tenderness. I now know I will make it through this scary time, and I know he sent you to help me. It’s wonderful that there’s such caring and love in this church. Thank you.” I had no idea when I hugged her she was going in for breast cancer surgery the next day.
Another note from the same week said, “I have been asking God for a positive sign that he is with me. Before the service, Pastor Glen, whom I’ve never met, walked by my seat, and without saying a word, put his hand on my shoulder. I know now that the Lord has not forgotten me.” The man’s wife had left himthat week.
On weekends when someone else on our preaching team is speaking, I usually spend the entire time giving a look, a word, and a touch to hundreds of people. You never know how a tender word and a caring touch will make all the difference in the world to someone. Behind every smile is a hidden hurt that a simple expression of love may heal.
Use a warm, personal style in writing to visitors. We have a series of letters I’ve written to first-time, second-time, and third-time visitors, telling them how glad we are to see them. I don’t sign them “Dr. Warren” or even “Pastor Warren,” I
simply sign them “Rick.” I want visitors to feel they can relate to me on a first-name basis.
If you send a letter to visitors, write it just as you talk to people, not in stilted, formal language. I received a visitor letter once that said, “Our church would like to acknowledge your presence with us last Sunday and extend to you a cordial invitation to return on the next Lord’s Day.” Does anyone really talk like that? Instead say, “It was really great to have you. Hope you can come back.” Don’t write like you’re drafting correspondence for British royalty.
One of the most important decisions each pastor must make is whether to impress people or influence them. You can impress people froma distance, but you have to get up close to people to love and influence them. Proximity determines impact. I think the reason some pastors stay distant from their people is because they aren’t impressive up close.
If a church wants to attract a crowd, both the pastor and the members must act in loving ways toward outsiders. You must demonstrate the attitude, “If you come here, we’re going to love you. No matter who you are or what you look like or what you’ve done, you’re going to be loved in this place.”
Accepting without approving
In order to love unbelievers unconditionally, people must understand the difference between acceptance and approval. As Christians, we are all called to accept and love unbelievers
without approving of sinful lifestyles. Jesus did this when he showed acceptance and love to the Samaritan woman at the well without approving of her licentious lifestyle. He also ate with Zacchaeus without approving of his dishonesty. And he publicly defended the dignity of the woman caught in adultery without minimizing her sin.
Any good fisherman knows that sometimes in order to reel a fish in, particularly a feisty one, you have to cut it a little slack in the line. If you pull hard and straight in the fish will probably snap your line and maybe your pole. You have to work with the fish, letting him have his way sometimes. The same is true in fishing for people: Sometimes you need to give unbelievers some slack in order to reel them in. Don’t hit them over the head with everything they’re doing wrong. A lot of their sins will be dealt with after they come to Christ.
We cannot expect unbelievers to act like believers until they are believers. The book of Romans teaches that it is impossible for unbelievers to act like believers because they don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit within them.
The crowds that Jesus drew were a mixture of believers and unbelievers. Some were dedicated followers, some were sincere seekers, and some were insincere skeptics. This didn’t bother Jesus. He loved themall.
At Saddleback, we know that many who attend our crowd services have questionable lifestyles, sinful habits, and even notorious reputations. That doesn’t bother us. We make a
distinction between the crowd (uncommitted attenders) and the congregation (our membership). The congregation, not the crowd, is the church. The crowd service is just a place where members can bring unbelieving friends to whom they’ve been personally witnessing.
We apply different standards of conduct to members and attenders. Members of our church are expected to abide by the lifestyle guidelines of our membership covenant. Those who engage in immoral activities are subject to church discipline. Unbelievers in the crowd are not subject to church discipline because they are not actually a part of our church family. Paul made this distinction clear in 1 Corinthians 5:9–12 (italics added):
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people —not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
We do not expect unbelieving attenders to get rid of their sinful habits or change their lifestyle in order to attend a service. Instead, they’re encouraged to come “just as they are.” The church is a hospital for sinners. We’d rather have a southern California pagan attend our crowd service in shorts and a Budweiser® T-shirt than stay home or go to the beach. If we can get them to hear the Good News and witness some changed lives, we believe it will be just a matter of time until
many open their hearts to Christ.
Jesus did not say, “Clean up your act and then I’ll save you.” He loved you even before you changed. And he expects you to do the same with other people. I can’t count the large number of couples who started attending Saddleback while living together and, once they were saved, asked to be married. Some time ago I married a couple of new converts who’d been living together for seventeen years. As soon as they came to Christ they said, “I guess we need to be married.” And I said, “You certainly do!” Sanctification comes after salvation.
There is no method, no program, and no technology that can make up for a lack of love for unbelievers. Our love for God and our love for lost people is what motivates Saddleback to keep growing. It is what has motivated me to preach four services each weekend for years even though it is incredibly draining. Believe me, once you’ve delivered a message to a crowd of several thousand, there is no additional personal benefit in repeating it three more times. You do it because people need the Lord. Love is the motivating factor. Love leaves no choice.
Whenever I feel my heart growing cold toward people who don’t know Christ, I remind myself of the cross. That’s how much God loves lost people. It was love, not nails, that kept Jesus on the cross. He stretched out his arms and said, “I love lost people this much!” When Christians love people that much, their churches will attract crowds.
Jesus AttractedCrowds by Meeting People’s Needs
People crowded around Jesus because he met their needs physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, and financial. He did not judge some needs as being “more legitimate” than others, and he certainly did not make people feel guilty for their needs. He treated each person with dignity and respect.
Jesus often met a felt need in order to establish a beachhead for evangelismin a person’s life. I pointed out earlier that Jesus frequently asked people, “What do you want me to do for you?” God uses all kinds of human needs to get people’s attention. Who are we to judge whether a person’s interest in Christ is for the right reason or the wrong reason? It doesn’t matter why people initially come to Jesus, what matters is that they come. He can work on their motives, values, and priorities once they enter his presence.
I doubt that any of us had absolutely unselfish, unmixed motivations when we asked Christ to save us. We came when we sensed a need that he could meet. We should not expect unbelievers to have Christlike motives and values.
It is my deep conviction that anybody can be won to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart. That key to each person’s heart is unique so it is sometimes difficult to discover. It may take some time to identify it. But the most likely place to start is with the person’s felt needs. As I pointed out earlier, this was the approach Jesus used.
Getting people’s attention
Before you can share the Good News of salvation with someone, you have to get his or her attention. As I drive the freeways of southern California I often find myself praying, Lord, how can I get all these people to slow down long enough to hear the Good News? How can I get their attention? In the earlier part of this century, getting people’s attention wasn’t as much of a problem for churches. The church was usually the biggest building in town, the pastor was often the most educated and prominent person in town, and the church program was the social calendar of the community.
None of this is true anymore. A church can sit right next to a freeway with 100,000 cars driving by daily, and it will still be ignored. Pastors are often portrayed on television shows as either con men, wimps, or crazed perverts. And church programs must compete with everything else in our entertainment-obsessed culture. The only way a church can capture the attention of the unchurched today is by offering themsomething they cannot get anywhere else.
At Saddleback, we take seriously the task of meeting needs in Christ’s name. That’s what “ministry” is all about: meeting needs in Jesus’ name. The first line of Saddleback’s vision statement says, “It is the dream of a place where the hurting, the hopeless, the discouraged, the depressed, the frustrated, and the confused can find love, acceptance, guidance, and encouragement.”
Written into the bylaws of Saddleback Church is this
sentence: “This church exists to benefit the residents of the Saddleback Valley by providing for their spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, and social needs.” Our objective is to minister to the total person. We do not limit our ministry to only the so-called “spiritual” needs. We believe God cares about every part of a person’s life. People cannot be compartmentalized. Their needs spill over onto each other.
James gave a strong rebuke to Christians who think the answer to every need is a sermon or a Bible verse: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15–16, italics added). Meeting human needs, regardless of what they are, is being a “doer of the Word.”
Look beyond the hype of every growing church and you will find a common denominator: They have figured out a way to meet the real needs of people. A church will never grow beyond its capacity to meet needs. If your church is genuinely meeting needs, then attendance will be the least of your problems—you’ll have to lock the doors to keep people out.
What are the needs of the unchurched in your community? I can’t answer that question for you. You need to survey your own community because every area has its own unique needs. I know of a church that discovered through a survey that the number one felt need in their community was potty training for preschoolers! The area was filled with young couples who
wanted help with potty training. Rather than ignore this need as “unspiritual,” the church used it as an opportunity for evangelism. The church held a “Parenting Preschoolers” conference which, among other things, taught this vital skill. Later the pastor joked that their biblical basis was Proverbs 22:6: “Train a child in the way he should go!” The idea is funny, but the results were serious. Dozens of couples were reached for Christ through that initial contact.
When it comes to using felt needs as an open door for evangelism, the possibilities are limitless. Saddleback has over seventy targeted ministries to the crowd and community, each built around a specific need. We have a support group called “Empty Arms” for couples dealing with miscarriage and stillbirths. “Peacemakers” is an outreach to meet the needs of people in law enforcement. “Hope for the Separated” ministers to people who are trying to save their marriage after a partner has walked out. “Lifelines” seeks to meet the needs of troubled teenagers. “Celebrate Recovery” ministers to over 500 people struggling with alcoholism, drug dependency, and other abuses. The list goes on and on.
Are there any universal needs that exist among the unchurched? I believe there are. Regardless of where I’ve traveled, I’ve found that people feel the same emotional and relational needs. These include the need for love, acceptance, forgiveness, meaning, self-expression, and a purpose for living. People are also looking for freedom from fear, guilt, worry, resentment, discouragement, and loneliness. If your church is
meeting these kinds of needs, you won’t have to worry about advertising your services. Changed lives are a church’s greatest advertisement.
Wherever needs are being met and lives are being changed the word quickly gets out into a community. Just today I heard of someone who visited a Saddleback service last weekend because “a hair stylist told a client who told my boss who told me that this is the place to go when you really need help.”
Each time your church meets someone’s need, a good rumor about the church begins traveling the interpersonal network of your community. When enough of those good rumors get spread around, your church will begin attracting people no visitation programcould possibly have reached.
Jesus AttractedCrowds by Teaching in a Practical, Interesting Way
The Bible tells us that it was the custom of Jesus to teach the crowds (Mark 10:1). It also tells us the reactions of the crowd to his teaching. We learn that
- “the crowds were amazed at his teaching” (Matt. 7:28)
- “the crowds were profoundly impressed” (Matt. 22:33 LB)
- “the people were so enthusiastic about Jesus’ teaching” (Mark 11:18 LB)
- “the great crowd enjoyed listening to him” (Mark 12:37
The crowds had never heard anyone speak to them the way Jesus did. They were “spellbound by his teaching” (Mark 11:18 NRSV, italics added). There has never been a greater communicator than Jesus Christ.
To capture the attention of unbelievers like Jesus did, we must communicate spiritual truth the way he did. Jesus, not anyone else, must be our model for preaching. Unfortunately, some homiletics books pay more attention to Aristotle’s methods and Greek rhetoric than how Jesus taught.
In John 12:49 Jesus admitted, “The Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (italics added). Notice that both the content and the delivery style of Jesus’ teaching were directed by the Father.
There’s so much we can learn from Jesus’ style of communication. However, in this chapter I want to only briefly identify three attributes of Jesus’ teaching to the crowd.
Jesus began with people’s needs, hurts, and interests
Jesus usually taught in response to a question or a pressing problem from someone in the crowd. He scratched where people itched. His preaching had an immediacy about it. He was always relevant and always on target for that moment.
When Jesus preached his first sermon at Nazareth, he read
from Isaiah to announce what the preaching agenda of his ministry would be: “The Lord has put his Spirit in me, because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again. God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly and to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness” (see Luke 4:18–19 NCV).
Notice the complete emphasis on meeting needs and healing hurts. Jesus had good news to share so people wanted to hear it. His message offered practical benefits to those who listened to him. His truth would “set people free” and bring all sorts of blessings to their lives.
We do not have to make the Bible relevant—it already is! But just as Jesus did, we have to show the Bible’s relevance by applying its message personally to people’s lives.
We must learn to share the Gospel in ways that show it is both “good” and “news.” If it isn’t good news, it isn’t the Gospel. The Gospel is about what God has done for us and what we can become in Christ; it’s about a personal relationship with Christ being the answer to our deepest needs. The Good News offers lost people what they are frantically searching for: forgiveness, freedom, security, purpose, love, acceptance, and strength. It settles our past, assures our future, and gives meaning to today. It is the best news in the world.
Crowds always flock to hear good news. There is enough
bad news in the world that the last thing people need is to hear more bad news when they come to church. They are looking for anyone who can give them hope and help and encouragement. Jesus understood this and felt compassion for the crowds. He knew that they were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36).
By beginning with people’s needs when you preach or teach, you immediately gain the attention of your audience. Every good communicator understands and uses this principle. A good teacher knows to start with the students’interests and move them toward the lesson to be studied. A good salesman knows you always start with the customer’s needs, not the product. A wise manager knows to begin with the employee’s complaint, not her own agenda. You start where people are and move themto where you want themto be.
Pick up any textbook on the brain and you’ll learn that at the base of your brain stem is a filter called the “reticular activating system.” God graciously put this filter in your mind so that you don’t have to consciously respond to the millions of stimuli you are bombarded with on a daily basis. If you had to consciously respond to everything your senses pick up you’d go insane. But your reticular activating system continuously sifts and sorts the things you see, hear, and smell, forwarding only a few of those stimuli on to your consciousness. This way you are not overloaded and overwhelmed.
What does get your attention? Three things always make it past the reticular activating system: things you value; things
that are unique; and things that threaten you. This fact has profound implications for those who preach and teach. If you want to capture the attention of an uninterested crowd you must tie your message to one of these three attention-getters.
While sharing the Good News in a unique or threatening way can get attention of the unchurched, I believe that showing its value to people is most consistent with how Christ taught. Jesus taught in a way that people understood the value and benefit of what he was saying. He didn’t try to threaten the unchurched into the kingdom of God. In fact, his only threats were to religious people! He comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable.
Because preachers are called to communicate truth, we often mistakenly assume that unbelievers are eager to hear it. But unbelievers aren’t that interested in truth these days. In fact, surveys show that the majority of Americans reject the idea of absolute truth.
Moral relativism is the root of what is wrong in our society. People worry and complain about the rising crime rate, the breakup of the family, and the general decline of our culture, but they don’t realize the cause of it all is that they don’t value truth. Today tolerance is valued more than truth so it is a big mistake for us to think that unbelievers will race to church if we just proclaim, “We have the truth!” Their reaction will be, “Yeah, so does everybody else.” Proclaimers of truth don’t get much attention in a society that devalues truth. To overcome
this, some preachers try to “yell it like it is.” But preaching louder isn’t the solution.
While most unbelievers aren’t looking for truth, they are looking for relief. This gives us the opportunity to interest them in truth. I’ve found that when I teach a truth that relieves their pain or solves their problem, unbelievers say, “Thanks! What else is true in that book?” Sharing biblical principles that meet a need creates a hunger for more truth.
Very few of the people who came to Jesus were looking for truth; they were looking for relief. So Jesus would meet their felt need, whether it was leprosy, blindness, or a bent back. After their felt needs were met, they were always anxious to know the truth about this man who had helped them with a problemthey couldn’t solve.
Ephesians 4:29 says, “[Speak] only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (italics added). Notice that what we say should be determined by the needs of the people to whom we are speaking. We are to speak only what benefits them. It stands to reason that if this is God’s will for our conversations, it must also be God’s will for our sermons. Unfortunately, many pastors determine the content of their messages by what they feel they need to say rather than what the people need to hear.
One reason sermon study is so difficult for many pastors is because they ask the wrong question. Instead of asking, “What shall I preach on this Sunday?” they should be asking,
“To whom will I be preaching?” Simply thinking through the needs of the audience will help determine God’s will for the message.
Since God, in his foreknowledge, already knows who will be attending your services next Sunday, why would he give you a message totally irrelevant to the needs of those he is intending to bring? Why would he have you preach on something unhelpful to those he’s planned to hear it? People’s immediate needs are a key to where God would have you begin speaking on that particular occasion.
The crowd does not determine whether or not you speak the truth: The truth is not optional. But your audience does determine which truths you choose to speak about. And some truths are more relevant than others to unbelievers.
Can something be both true and irrelevant? Certainly! If you had been in a car accident and were bleeding to death in the emergency room, how would you feel if the doctor came in and wanted to talk about the Greek word for hospital or the history of the stethoscope? His information could be true, but it would be irrelevant because it doesn’t stop your hurt. You would want the doctor to begin with your pain.
Your audience also determines how you start your message. If you are speaking to the unchurched and you spend the first part of the message on the historical background of the text, by the time you get to the personal application you will have already lost them. When speaking to the unchurched you need
to begin where your sermons normally end up.
Jesus related truth to life
I love the practicality and simplicity of Jesus’ teaching. It was clear, relevant, and applicable. He aimed for application because his goal was to transform people, not merely to inform them. Consider the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached.
Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount by sharing eight secrets of genuine happiness. Then he talked about living an exemplary lifestyle, controlling anger, restoring relationships, and avoiding adultery and divorce. Next, he spoke of keeping promises and returning good for evil. After that, he moved on to other practical life issues like how to give with the right attitude, how to pray, how to store up treasure in heaven, and how to overcome worry. He wrapped up his message by telling us to not judge others, to be persistent when asking God to meet our needs, and to be wary of false teachers. He then concluded with a simple story that emphasized the importance of acting on what he had taught.
This is the kind of preaching we need in churches today preaching that not only attracts crowds—it changes lives! It is not enough for us to simply proclaim that “Christ is the answer”; we must show the unchurched how Christ is the answer. Sermons that exhort people to change without sharing the practical steps of how to do it end up just producing more guilt and frustration.
A lot of preaching is what I call “Ain’t it awful!” preaching. It just complains about our society and makes judgments about people in general. It is long on diagnosis and short on remedy. This kind of preaching may make Christians feel superior to “those out there,” but it rarely changes anything. Instead of lighting a candle, it just curses the darkness.
When I go to a doctor, I don’t want to just hear what’s wrong with me; I want him or her to give me some specific steps to getting better. What people need today are fewer “ought-to” sermons and more “how-to” sermons.
Some pastors criticize “life-application” preaching as shallow, simplistic, and inferior. To them, the only real preaching is didactic, doctrinal preaching. This attitude implies that Paul was more profound than Jesus, that Romans is “deeper” material than the Sermon on the Mount or the parables. I call that heresy! The deepest kind of teaching is that which makes a difference in people’s day-to-day lives. As D. L. Moody once said, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.” Our goal is Christlike character.
Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life” (John 10:10). He didn’t say, “I’ve come that you might have religion.” Christianity is a life, not a religion, and Jesus was a life-application preacher. When he finished his teaching to the crowd, he always wanted themto “go and do likewise.”
Christlike preaching is life-related and produces a changed
lifestyle. It doesn’t just inform, it transforms. It changes people because the Word is applied to where people actually live. Sermons that teach people how to live will never lack an audience.
Please understand: The unchurched are not asking that we change the message or even dilute it, only that we show its relevance. Their big question is, “So what?” They want to know what difference our message makes. I’ve found that the unchurched in America are very interested in Bible doctrine when it is applied in practical and relevant ways to their lives.
For me, it is challenging and enjoyable to teach theology to the unchurched without telling them it is theology and without using theological terms. I’ve preached sermon series to the crowd on the incarnation, justification, and sanctification without ever using the terms. I’ve also preached sermon series to the unchurched crowd on the work of the Holy Spirit, the moral attributes of God, stewardship, and even the seven deadly sins.
It is a myth that you must compromise the message to draw a crowd. Jesus certainly didn’t. You don’t have to transform the message of the Bible but you do have to translate it into terms the unchurched will understand.
Jesus spoke to the crowd with an interesting style
The crowd loved to listen to Jesus. Mark 12:37 (NCV) says, “The large crowd listened to Jesus with pleasure” (italics
added). The New International Version says they “listened … with delight.” Do people “delight” in your messages?
Some pastors actually think they have failed in their preaching if people enjoy a message. I’ve heard pastors proudly say, “We’re not here to entertain.” Obviously they’re doing a good job at it. A Gallup poll a few years ago stated that, according to the unchurched, the church is the most boring place to be.
If you look up the word entertain in a dictionary, you’ll find this definition: “capturing and holding the attention for an extended period of time.” I don’t know any preacher who doesn’t want to do that. We should not be afraid of being interesting. A sermon does not have to be dry to be spiritual.
To the unchurched, dull preaching is unforgivable. Truth poorly delivered is ignored. On the other hand, the unchurched will listen to absolute foolishness if it is interesting. To prove this, just turn on your television late at night and you will see the assortment of psychics, wackos, and weirdos that dominate the airwaves.
I mentioned in the last chapter that I am amazed at how some Bible teachers are able to take the most exciting book in the world and bore people to tears with it. I believe it is a sin to bore people with the Bible. When God’s Word is taught in an uninteresting way, people don’t just think the pastor is boring, they think God is boring! We slander God’s character if we preach with an uninspiring style or tone. The message is too
important to share it with a “take-it-or-leave-it” attitude.
Jesus captured the interest of large crowds with techniques that you and I can use. First, he told stories to make a point. Jesus was a master storyteller. He would say, “Hey, did you hear the one about …” and then tell a parable in order to teach a truth. In fact, the Bible shows that storytelling was Jesus’ favorite technique when speaking to the crowd. “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable” (Matt. 13:34). Somehow preachers forget that the Bible is essentially a book of stories. That is how God has chosen to communicate his Word to human beings.
There are many benefits to using stories to communicate spiritual truth:
- Stories hold our attention. The reason television is so popular is because it is essentially a storytelling device. Comedies, dramas, the news, talk shows—even commercials—are stories.
- Stories stir our emotions. They impact us in ways that precepts and propositions never do. If you want to change lives, you must craft the message for impact, not for information.
- Stories help us remember. Long after a pastor’s clever outline is forgotten, people will remember the stories from the sermon. It is fascinating, and sometimes comical, to watch how quickly a crowd tunes in when a
speaker begins telling a story and how quickly that attention vanishes as soon as the story is finished.
Second, Jesus used simple language, not technical or theological jargon. He spoke in terms that normal people could understand. We need to remember that Jesus did not use the classical Greek language of the scholar. He spoke in Aramaic, the street language of that day. He talked of birds, flowers, lost coins, and other everyday objects that anyone could relate to.
While Jesus taught profound truths in simple ways, many pastors do the exact opposite; they teach simple truths in profound ways. They take straightforward texts and make them complicated. They think they are being “deep” when actually they are just being “muddy!” It is more important to be clear than clever in teaching and preaching.
Some pastors like to show off their knowledge by using Greek words and academic terms in their preaching. Every Sunday they speak in an unknown tongue without being charismatic! Pastors need to realize that no one cares as much about the Greek as they do. Chuck Swindoll once told me that he believes an overuse of Greek and Hebrew word studies in preaching discourages confidence in the English text. I agree.
Jack Hayford, Chuck Smith, Chuck Swindoll, and I once taught a seminary doctoral course on how we each prepare and deliver sermons. At the end of the course the students mentioned that all four of us had, without collaboration, emphasized the same thing: Keep it simple!
It’s easy to complicate the Gospel, and of course, Satan would love for us to do just that. The apostle Paul worried that “your minds [w]ould be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3 NASB, italics added). It takes a lot of thought and preparation to communicate profound truths in simple ways. Einstein once said, “You don’t really understand something unless you can communicate it in a simple way.” You can be brilliant, but if you can’t share your thoughts in a simple way, your insights aren’t worth much.
The Saddleback Valley is one of the most highly educated communities in America. Yet I find that the simpler I make the message, the more God blesses it. Simple does not mean shallow or simplistic; it means being clear and understandable*.* For instance, “This is the day the Lord has made” is simple, while “Have a nice day!” is simplistic.
Simple sermon outlines are always the strongest outlines. I consider it a compliment to be called a “simple” preacher. I’m interested in seeing lives changed, not impressing people with my vocabulary.
Most people communicate with a vocabulary of less than 2,000 words and rely on only about 900 words in daily use. If you want to communicate with most people you need to keep it simple. Never allow yourself to be intimidated by people who think they are intellectuals. It’s been my observation that people who have to use big words are sometimes hiding bigger insecurities.
Ministry to Crowds Is Controversial
I realize that there are some Christians who will disagree with the thesis of this chapter. The controversy over attracting a crowd boils down to two issues. The first has to do with the legitimacy of what is called “attraction evangelism,” and the other has to do with how the church should relate to the culture it seeks to evangelize.
”Go and tell” or “Come and see”?
Some church leaders deny that attraction is a legitimate method of evangelism. I’ve heard preachers say, “The Bible does not tell the world to come to church. It tells the church to go to the world.” This is an inaccurate statement because it is only half true.
Of course the Bible commands Christians to “go and tell.” That’s what the Great Commission is all about! Christians are not to wait for the world to come and ask us about Christ. We are to take the initiative in sharing the Good News. To believers, Jesus says, “Go!”
But to the lost world, Jesus says, “Come!” When a couple of inquirers wanted to know about Jesus, he replied, “Come, and you will see!” (John 1:39). In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said to seekers, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” And on the last day of the great Feast, “Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let himcome to me and drink’ “ (John 7:37).
Both “Go and tell” and “Come and see” are found in the New Testament. In Luke 14, where Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a great banquet, the Master’s servants are to go out and invite the hungry to come in and eat, “so that my house may be full.”
We do not need to choose between “go” and “come”; both are valid forms of evangelism. Some people will be reached by attraction, while others will be reached by confrontation. A balanced, healthy church should provide opportunities and programs for both. At Saddleback, we use both approaches. We say “Come and see!” to our community, but to our core we say, “Go and tell!”
Responding to culture: imitation, isolation, or infiltration?
Another ongoing debate that affects evangelism has to do with how the church should respond to culture. There are two extreme positions: imitation and isolation. Those in the “imitation” camp argue that the church must become just like our culture in order to minister to it. Churches in this group sacrifice the biblical message and mission of the church in order to blend in with the culture. They are likely to endorse current cultural values such as the worship of success and wealth, radical individualism, radical feminism, liberal sexual standards, and even homosexuality. In their attempt to be relevant, these churches sacrifice biblical theology, doctrinal distinctives, and the Gospel of Christ. The call for repentance and commitment is compromised in order to attract a crowd.
Syncretismdestroys this kind of church.
At the other extreme is the “isolation” camp. This group insists we must avoid any adaptation to culture in order to preserve the purity of the church. They fail to see the distinction between the sinful values of our culture and the nonsinful customs, styles, and preferences that each generation develops. They reject new translations of Scripture, current musical styles, and any attempt to modify man-made traditions, such as the time and order of the worship service that they are accustomed to. Isolationists sometimes have a dress code, and a list of what is permissible and what isn’t regarding issues that the Bible is silent on. (It is human nature to erect theological walls to defend personal preferences.)
Churches in this group confuse their cultural traditions with orthodoxy. They do not realize that the customs, styles, and methods they feel comfortable with were undoubtedly labeled as “modern, worldly, and heretical” by a previous generation of believers.
Must we choose between liberalism and legalism? Is there a third alternative to imitation and isolation? I’m convinced there is. The strategy of Jesus is the antidote to both extremes: infiltration!
Just as saltwater fish exist their entire lives in an ocean without becoming saturated with salt, Jesus ministered i n the world without being of the world. He “made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14), and was even tempted in every way we are,
“yet was without sin” (Heb. 4:15). He walked among people, spoke their language, observed their customs, sang their songs, attended their parties, and used their current events (see Luke 13:1–5) to capture attention when he taught. But he did all these things without compromising his mission.
J e s u s ‘ sinner-sensitive ministry made the religious establishment nervous, and they criticized him ruthlessly. They even attributed his ministry to Satan (Mark 3:22)! The Pharisees especially hated the way Jesus made unbelievers feel comfortable in his presence and the way he placed sinners’ needs above religious traditions. They scorned Jesus’ reputation as a “friend of tax collectors and sinners”—to them, such a title was the ultimate put-down, but Jesus wore it as a badge of honor. His response was, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).
In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees used the excuse of “purity” to avoid all contact with unbelievers. We still have Pharisees in the church today, who are more concerned about purity than people. If your church is serious about the Great Commission, you will never have a completely pure church because you will always be attracting unbelievers with their questionable lifestyles to your crowd services. Evangelism is sometimes messy. Even after people become believers, you still have to deal with their immaturity and carnality, so there will never be a completely pure church.
Are there unrepentant pagans mixed into Saddleback’s
crowd of 10,000? Without a doubt! When you fish with a big net you catch all kinds of fish. That’s okay. Jesus said in one parable, “Don’t worry about the tares mixed in among the wheat. One day I’ll separate them.” (See Matt. 13:29–30, italics added). We are to leave the weeding to Jesus because he knows who the real tares are.
Jesus reserved his most severe words for the rigid, religious traditionalists. When the Pharisees asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?” Jesus replied, “Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” (Matt. 15:2–3). Fulfilling God’s purpose must always take priority over preserving tradition.
If you are serious about ministering to people the way Jesus did, don’t be surprised if some of today’s religious establishment accuse you of selling out to culture and breaking traditions. You will be criticized! Sadly, some isolationists have been extremely judgmental of seeker-sensitive churches in books and articles. Most of these criticisms are unfair characterizations made out of ignorance and do not represent what actually happens in seeker-sensitive churches.
Trailblazers always get arrows shot at them. Translating the truth into contemporary terms is dangerous business. Remember, they burned Wycliffe at the stake for doing it. But criticism by other Christians should never keep you from ministering the way Christ did. Jesus should be our ultimate model for ministry, not anyone else.