Kevin Alan Wells

A satirical look into a megachurch future…

Let It Ride! The Gamble That’s Paying Off

Interview by: Kevin Alan Wells

In the vast glimmering sky of church growth stars, a supernova has exploded. Bursting into the spotlight with his new book, Let It Ride! Fostering Faith-based Church Growth, Ray Crosse promises to raise a new generation of megachurches to stellar heights.

The church growth strategy now sending shockwaves across the nation Crosse perfected over the last five years at South Rim Community Church where he’s pastor. There, his strategy’s slogan has risen to status of mantra. In our interview, I asked what Let It Ride means to him.

“Let It Ride is about trusting God,” Crosse began as we slid into a golf cart for a tour of South Rim’s campus. “That’s not something the average American has an easy time doing.

“I wanted to find a way to help facilitate that trust. I talked with experts. I read studies. I prayed. And from it all I found something Americans love that somehow the Church had missed tapping into, a pastime that weekends and vacations are planned around: gambling. We’re talking billions of dollars a year.

“That’s when it hit me – faith is so much like gambling. It’s gambling on God. Every Christian who trusts in God gambles every day. Why not bring in the physical manifestation of that spiritual reality, and by promoting the physical, foster the spiritual? So that’s what I did.

“The revenue from our church bookstore was drying up. So I made the executive decision to shut down the store, tear out the shelves, and put that space to better use for God.

“That became the home of our first church casino. Just a couple slots and some poker tables. I put a big banner up on the wall: Let It Ride! Six months later, we were breaking ground on a new sanctuary.

“It’s all about trusting God, having faith that he is guiding us into the future, our future. Just put everything down on the table –give it all to God, see what he does. ‘If my people will but gamble on me’ God says in Malachi, ‘I will throw open the windows of heaven and pour down so much abounding treasure that they won’t have room for it all!’ I’ve spent my ministry getting South Rim to commit to that. And just look how God has blessed us – we had Coldplay perform here last night! It’s an exciting time for the church.”

But not everyone thinks so. The publication of Let It Ride! has in some groups met with just as passionate criticism as the adulation it is receiving from others. Critics say the methods of church growth advocated in Let It Ride! fall short of nurturing Christ followers, and are only creating clubs of gambling addicts in the name of Christ.

“Addicts?” Crosse snorts, “Sure, God addicts! People see someone devoting her life to the church, trusting her finances to God, and they start demonizing her – calling her an addict, telling her she has a problem. Drives me crazy.

“I understand some people are hesitant to embrace this new wave. So were the Israelites crossing the Red Sea (hey, no pun intended there!). But seriously, there’s always backlash at innovation. Luther went through the same crap in his day. Really, I think it’s that they honestly just don’t understand. And it’s not my calling to make people understand. My calling is to build my church for God.

“South Rim was a stagnant country club before I got here. The principles of Let It Ride! turned them around, got them trusting in God and looking into the future. And the focus of the Church must always be on the future.”

To South Rim’s parishioners, that future looks as bright as flashing triple sevens.

“Pastor Crosse helped us catch on fire for the Lord,” said Ed William, a member of South Rim for over ten years. “For the first time in our church’s history, we’re reaching out beyond our walls to other cultures. We’ve got Pachinko machines now. A hundred of them. And this Sunday, we’re laying hands on five card dealers for missions work in Africa. We’re finally starting to take the Bible seriously, and recognize this isn’t about us. It’s all God, and Christians here are really reaching out to trust in him, putting their money, their cars, even their homes on the line, praying, ‘Lord, if you will it, take this offering and return it a hundred-fold! Let it ride!’ That’s not something any man can inspire. That’s a supernatural faith, right there.”

Crosse agrees. Circling the perimeter of South Rim Stadium, he says, “I’m getting a lot of the credit, but Let It Ride! is bigger than me. This is God guiding us into the future. The methods of church growth he gave us a few years ago were well and fine back then. But they’re horse and buggies now.

“We should be thankful for what God has done in the past, of course, but even more importantly, we must be open to what the Lord is doing right now. A lot of people miss that. They want to argue and try to hold on to what God has already let go.

“Frankly, people can debate all they want. But one thing you can’t argue with is results. Since I’ve taken over, South Rim’s flock has grown seven hundred percent. These are growth rates that American congregations haven’t seen since the Second Great Awakening. I tell you, people are here at the crack of dawn waiting for the doors to open, and we have to shut the power off in the buildings to get them to leave at night. These people love being in the house of God! It blesses my heart.”

Neither the excitement nor the controversy of Let It Ride! is likely to burn out any time soon. And with the construction of South Rim Resort scheduled for completion this summer, Rev. Crosse’s heart will likely abound with blessings for many years to come.

Photo by: Pigliapost