Just this month The Church Report issued its list of the “fifty most influential churches in America.” All of the churches are huge. Being huge, more people hear about them. The list is unfortunate because it suggests that size is critically important for influence. And, sadly, too many people mistake influence for impact. It is God who determines impact, and sometimes size has very little to do with it. I would suggest that the very fact many of the “fifty most influential churches in America” are so large is because they are, in fact, not as influential on individual lives as many might think. In most cases, if the crowd loves something it is because there is little risk of individual change. If the crowd loves something it is because there is no depth.
Whoever knows he is deep, strives for clarity; whoever would like to appear deep to the crowd, strives for obscurity. For the crowd considers anything deep if only it cannot see to the bottom: the crowd is so timid and afraid of going into the water. Friedrich Nietzsche
“A crowd always thinks with its sympathy, never with its reason” ~ William R. Alger
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