A friend of mine described the church they attend to me by this statement. “They (the church leadership) are just trying to make disciples, they are not worried about numbers.” I am thrilled this friend has found a church where they can plug into and serve with but their description about church made me begin to process those 2 ideas…attracting a crowd vs. making disciples. You see I serve at that church who gets classified as a crowd attractor. Many times people think because of our crowd and the messiness of people we must not be concerned with moving people toward being more like Jesus. That assumption couldn’t be more wrong. We are consumed with tweaking our strategy so we assure people are growing spiritually. We are also just as passionate about creating environments where people feel passionate about inviting their friends and neighbors. We are focused on investing in those who are with us and reaching our to those who are far from God simultaneously. This applies to everything we do in family ministry also. We strive to create environments where people want to be and at the same time we push, pray, and plan for forward spiritual motion. All our churches…our ministries…can be places that attract and invest. I pray we always strive to reach people AND make disciples and I pray we never stop worrying about all those people who are far from God. As Andy Stanley says, this is a tension to manage not a problem to solve.