Pulling the Crowd

This blog might not sit well with some people. But I'll obey the Lord as the Holy Spirit impresses it on me.

Most of us are familiar with Church events, from crusades, to conferences, worship nights/evenings, revival services, breakthrough services...etc.

We are also familiar with billboards, flyers, adverts on TV with the big names to create awareness for the program. And when you ask, “why are you bringing this 'big name' “, the answer is: TO PULL THE CROWD.

To be fair, some organisers of these events invite the big names because of the unction of the Holy Spirit on their lives. As the Bible says, in Ephesians 4:11-13:

"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;"

My question is why slap these big names and faces on the publication? Is the ‘crowd’ that we are trying to draw coming to meet the Lord or the 'big name'? Are these events Man-focused or God-focused? How come we don't trust the name of the Lord to pull the crowd? Is God’s name not enough to draw His people to a gathering? After all, He is the ALMIGHTY! Why can’t we TRUST THE NAME OF THE LORD? Why can't we obey the Master that sent us, (unless we are sending ourselves)?

We can see few times in the Bible how God will summon His people to come and meet Him in a particular place. Exodus 19 gives us an example of this event. Moses was told by God in verses 10 and 11 that He will be “coming down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.” Moses did not have to ‘design’ how He would pull the crowd. He just told the Israelites exactly what the Lord said. I believe the people that were supposed to be there were there, because they feared the Lord. They came to meet the Lord and not Moses.

In the eyes of the world or Man, the bigger the crowd shows how successful the event is. But in the eyes of God, it is our motive and how obedient to His Word that He looks at.

1 Samuel 16:7
“But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” “


Obedience is the most important aspect of doing God’s work, not the work itself. We obey, and everything we fall exactly according to how He wants it, not how we want it!