200 out of 20,000
At the time of writing this, I had just attended a children’s dance performance with more than 200 children. Looking at the program, I saw this was one of about four scheduled performances over the weekend. I have no idea whether the other three had as many kids involved.
The community in which these kids lived only numbered about 20,000. Assuming 2/3 of them were adults (sure, there are probably some single-parent households, but there are some families with more than four kids, so I’m sticking with my assumption) implies there are about 6,500 kids in the community. That means these 200 kids represent about 3% to 4% of all the kids. I believe that is an extraordinary participation percentage.
The performance was held in the local high school auditorium. Each of these 200 kids had two or more adults frantic to see their little budding dancer perform. My guess is there were about 800 to 1,000 people in the audience. If they all came from the community (which they didn’t because I didn’t), that would imply about 5% of total community members were in the audience. Add to this the 200 kids, and you have about 6% of the total community in one place at one time.
Shawnee County, at least the last time I checked, has about 175,000 community members. Imagine a children’s dance recital with more than 10,000 people either attending or performing.
Now imagine we all shared the good news of Jesus Christ and got even 1% of the people in our community to come and praise the Lord and be fed with the good news from the Bible. If my calculations are correct, that would be a church service with about 1,750 attending!
“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:16-20 ESV
I’m not suggesting our focus should be on growth. I think, like the enthusiasm of the parents, family and friends attending that dance recital, we should be willing to share what Christ has done for each and every one of us and let the Holy Spirit spark the enthusiasm in them. Our job is not to convert people to Christ but to plant seeds.
