In an interview with Chuck Colson, he concluded with some counsel to pastors and their lay leaders: “Worry more about spiritual depth than church growth. There’s too much recruitment going on just to get people in the Church. I think pastors most often suffer because they’re under pressure from their own leadership, their deacons and elders. The people want the biggest church in town more than the pastor. So, I simply would say: Focus on making disciples, transforming them.
“I think there’s a real sense of unease in the Church today that we’ve got lots of numbers, but we don’t have people who really are change agents, who are really witnesses of transformed lives. One thing we’ve done at Prison Fellowship is recast our vision, mission and values statements to reflect not just reaching as many people in the prison with the Gospel as we can, but to really make disciples–to see them become transformed.”
Very insightful comment that reinforces my great passion to see the Church grasp the great need for disciple-making and not just ‘decisions’…