building attendance or attendees

Chandler and Furtick from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

Lately my thoughts have been circling around the concepts presented by Matt Chandler and Steven Furtick in this video.

I've never been to either of their churches. I frequent Furtick's blog; I've never read anything from Chandler. I'm not throwing them up here for a game of pick the "right" pastor. They just represent two different approaches for advancing the Kingdom (which I believe both are doing successfully). I'd be very interested to know where you/your church stand on this conversation.

The tagline of this exchange was "Preaching to build the attendance VS. Preaching to build the attendees".

My thought? Why the VS? If I had to choose?...Both. Why not both?

Preach the Gospel. And use whatever means, short of sin, to bring in more people to hear this Good News. I don't think we need to forego depth in order to reach more people. There's got to be a way to get the real Message to many people without compromising It's truth.

Why do we feel the need to choose? Why think we can be "seeker sensitive" or we can "preach the Word"? It's not about choosing between quality and quantity of attendees. It's about facilitating the opportunity for your church to make many, true disciples.

Every time the Pastor enters the pulpit, there can be temptation beforehand on either side of the spectrum. He can think, "I better strike point three. Just saw so-and-so and I don't want to offend them." Or he can think, "Good. They're here. They need to hear this." Both thoughts are fleshly.

If our Message seeks to honor Christ, crafted in the heart of man by the Holy Spirit, preached to bring Him glory and see Him lifted up...He will take care of the results. He will draw people to Himself. And He'll draw them into a deep, thriving relationship.

Our job isn't to build "large" churches. Or to make people become more faithful as disciples. Our job is to be obedient in seeking God and speaking truth...in love, and with listeners in mind. Our job is to provide every possible opportunity for people to get to know the real Jesus. As many people as possible.

I'm sure, when you get to the bottom of this exchange, that's what both pastors are saying. Build the Church - which is made of people. The only true way to build a church, is to build people.

How does your church do this?