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 May
2004
Don't Forget the Crowds!
I have frequently referred to some of
the 'inactive' Catholics in the pew every Sunday as "God's frozen people."
This often elicits a laugh with other leaders. However,
the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this label is terribly inappropriate.
Teaching as Jesus Did?
In the Gospels, Jesus recruited a band of disciples.
Beyond the Twelve, we hear of others who followed his
teachings closely, like devout women and people who went with him from place
to place. Beyond Jesus' inner circle we read about individuals whose lives
were radically changed by their encounter with Jesus, like the Woman at the
Well (John 4), the Roman centurion (Matthew 8:5) and Jairus (Mark 5). However,
we also hear a lot about Jesus teaching the crowds. He spent plenty
of time forming his disciples, but he spent an equal amount of time reaching
out to total strangers, curiosity seekers, and people who listened for a few
moments and then walked away.
The Gospel stories portray Jesus as a man
driven to the crowds. Despite the likelihood of rejection or
indifference, Jesus was compelled to reach out:
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was
moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like
sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:36
Jesus' ministry focused inward, on forming
his disciples in faith, and outward, on mission work to the throngs. The
mission extended first to the "lost sheep of Israel," but quickly expanded
to anyone who came forward to ask for his help. Does our ministry work the
same way?
Crowd Control?
Parishes offer
a remarkable array of services.
It is no wonder that there is always a strong push for more volunteers to
staff the various ministries. In our concern to ease the load of the
small core of volunteers who are doing everything, we constantly push to get
more active parishioners, more envelope users, more volunteers, more
committed disciples. However, do we sometimes spend so much energy on making
disciples that we lose sight of "the crowd", and how God is already at work
there?
Here are some questions that have been food for
my thought:
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Do I complain about Christmas and Easter Catholics who
crowd our churches two times a year, or those who show up for the occasional
sacrament?
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Do I equate belonging in my community with monetary
support?
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Do I set up hoops for people to jump through in order to
belong to my community, celebrate a sacrament, or feel welcome as a visitor?
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Where do I draw the line between being a disciple-maker
and a gate-keeper?
What were Jesus' hopes for the crowds? What did
he demand of them?
Most of the time, Jesus didn't call the crowds
"in" to belong to his inner circle, but rather sent them "out" to live the
Gospel in their homes, their jobs, their everyday lives. We will be
successful spreading the Gospel if our message does the same, making a
difference in the marketplace, on the street, in the homes of those who hear
it.
The Jesus Encounter
Let's never stop preaching and
teaching to the crowd. However, we need to let go of the assumption that we
are going to have churches one hundred percent full of profoundly committed
believers. There will always be a small core of deeply committed
disciples...and a large crowd of believers who are meeting Jesus at every
conceivable point along the journey of faith.
Can we do as Jesus did? Can we meet each person
where they are, and lovingly accept them as they are? Will that
unconditional acceptance open hearts to look deeper, to seek, to follow the
Way of Jesus?
It seemed to work pretty well for Jesus.
Chris Weber
Director,
Catholic Education Ministries of Central Maryland
301-447-3707
Copyright © 2004 by the Catholic Education
Ministries Center of Central Maryland, Emmitsburg, MD 21727. All rights reserved.
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Do we spend so much energy
on making disciples that we sometimes lose sight of "the crowd", and how
God is already at work there? |
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