What does size say?

Kent Brandenburg takes a hard look at the Gospels to answer this question: How did Jesus evangelize? Here's a sample:

Over 80% of Americans say they’re Christians, but only 9% of them say they have a biblical world view. Could it be that today we have massive crowds, but only a relative few who are saved? While U. S. churches exult in the size of their gatherings, Jesus tried to shrink His. They try to lure as many unbelievers as possible into one place, but the Lord repulsed them. . . .

People won’t get into His kingdom who won’t agonize to get there. In almost every way, for decades evangelical churches in this country have gone polar opposite of what Jesus did and said. They have changed His methods to attract unbelievers and altered his message to make it easy on interested hearers. Most often the very truths He taught that spurned the unsaved in His day are left out of today’s presentations.

What is most often missing that Jesus emphasized in His evangelism was “counting the cost.” He not only wouldn’t leave the hard part out, but He stressed it more than any other.

Amen.