This Sunday 11,500 people descended on the Durham Bulls Athletic Park for Church at the Ballpark. It was an incredible service, as we saw 554 people baptized, many of whom were making 1st time professions of faith. Many Summit members were beside themselves as they saw people for whom they have been praying make the decision to “cross the line of faith.” College students came forward with suitemates. Families were baptized together. Husbands baptized wives. A church leader who lost her young son last year to cancer told me that two of his nurses became believers and got baptized. A college-aged Satanist renounced her Satanism and embraced Christ as Savior.
Success isn’t measured by numbers alone, but when I think of all the stories connected with those 554 people, it overwhelms me. As one of our staff members said, “I’ve been working in churches for a long time now, and I’ve never been a part of anything like that before.”
As I reflected on Church at the Ballpark yesterday, these things came to mind:
1. Our staff and volunteers did an amazing job. 1,300 of our volunteers made Church at the Ballpark possible.They showed up early, stayed late, prayed and cried through the whole thing. Thank you.
2. We should never take this for granted. This was a big event, but it wasn’t big because of gimmicks on our part. Yes, the venue was unique. Yes, the music was a lot louder than usual. But we tried to present the gospel clearly–even confrontationally. We used Peter’s presentation of the gospel in Acts 2:22-41, made the same points, drew the same conclusions, and gave the same applications. And we issued a call to be baptized, which is still a culturally bizarre thing for people. The response that followed was first and foremost the work of God and an answer to prayer.
I woke up yesterday morning with a renewed sense of confidence in the gospel. What God is doing in our city bears all the marks of a genuine awakening. I never want to lose perspective on what brought us here—unswerving confidence in the gospel. And we should never take the gospel for granted.
3. This puts a lot of work in front of us. We aren’t committed to gathering a crowd of 11,500. We aren’t even committed to baptizing 555 people. We are committed to making disciples and transforming our community. It may be tempting at this point to see the Ballpark service as a “win,” as an end instead of a beginning. But the hundreds of people that we just baptized are beginning the process of discipleship, and that’s where the real work lies. Events that do not lead to discipleship ultimately end nowhere. As Steve Addison says in Movements that Changed the World, “For a movement to grow, it must not only reach new people, it must retain them and build them into a committed force for change.”
4. Success breeds self-confidence, but we need desperate reliance on God. When my kids are unsure and afraid, they get clingy with me. We’re the same way with God. When we are unsure of ourselves, we cling to him desperately. The dangerous moments are actually those when we succeed, and are tempted to see ourselves as pretty impressive. But we need the same sense of desperation that we would have had if Church at the Ballpark had been a total failure and embarrassment. Desperate reliance, not self-confidence, is still the stance we need.
5. Big events wear off; life change does not. It may not feel like it right now, but the high from seeing thousands worship together will wear off. The size of this event will feel less and less impressive. The numbers will become something that a lot of people shrug off and ignore. But I never tire of seeing the gospel take hold of people and breathing new life into them. I never tire of seeing families reconciled, of hearing about prayers answered, of rubbing shoulders with those who have had their lives forever changed by God’s grace. Big events wear off, but seeing the change in someone’s life because of the gospel never gets old.
If what moved us as a church was the size of the crowd or the spectacular nature of the event, then we will get increasingly bored with such things. But if we are seeing people we know come to faith in Christ, we will likely never lose the wonder of such moments. One of my college friends had 8 of his friends there, whom he has been working with, praying for, and pouring into. Watching his excitement as they got baptized told me he had found a joy which would last forever. If we want our church to continue to be amazed in these special moments when God gives them, we will push them to be involved in people’s lives all year long.
