building momentum

Matthew 4:18-25

I was just struck with something this morning: Satan had tempted Jesus to draw a crowd by doing something spectacular (jump off the temple) but Jesus trusted the Father to accomplish his will in his way instead. Here we see the results of that: Jesus begins his ministry with a simple message with huge implications ("repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near") and backs up that message by his integrity and miracles. His authoratative teaching and his miracles begin to accomplish what Satan tempted him with - he gains fame and large crowds begin to follow him.
However, the rest of Jesus' ministry shows that the crowd is not actually what he is pursuing. In fact, it seems like he doesn't ever truly trust the crowd. His main concern is the commitment of the individual. We see this as Jesus calls his first disciples and they immediately leave their fishing business to follow him.
I know that numbers are one evaluative tool because there are so many people who don't know Christ and so we want to influence as many as possible with the good news of the kingdom. However, just because I have x amount of students coming doesn't mean that I am growing disciples of Christ. Like Jesus, I must make my main concern the spiritual formation of the individual. In my case, that means that I must make sure that I have the volunteers necessary to mentor and disciple the students that Christ has brought to my ministry and then I must build into my volunteers so they can engage the individual student.