So the Lord has been hitting me upside the head the past few weeks like crazy on the subject of not getting caught up in numbers. The Gathering is the area in my life, where I stress most when it comes to people attending. Yes, I should care about people coming so that they can hear the gospel. But at the same time, it does not mean if you are successful or not. The Lord has showed me how its more important to follow God and be biblical than to have a large crowd and having the Gathering become extremely popular.
Jesus was not very popular at times in His ministry. In fact, He dwindled it down to 12 because of His harsh statements He made about what it means to truly follow Him.
I also look at the apostles and great men of God in our history, and I see a lot of failure when it comes to people increasingly coming. Adoniram Judson was a missionary who went to an unreached people group and translated the Bible for the Burmese people. He did not experience a single profession of faith until 6 years into his ministry. He was obviously fruitful in his work for the Lord before that person came to Christ.
So God has been humbling me to realize that success is based off of preaching the Word for what it is, and doing everything for the glory of God. If that means a lot of people come, praise God, if a lot of people don't... Praise God!!!
I leave you with a quote that has changed me a lot this past week.
"To evangelize does not mean to win converts... but simply to announce the good news, irrespective of the results" - John Stott
