Now, it is not bad to desire numeric growth. Churches should desire to seek out the lost. The great commission in Matthew 28 makes this very clear when it says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The church is to make disciples of all nations. We are supposed to call the nations to repentance that they might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Who has made a way for their reconciliation to the Holy God whom they have offended by their wickedness. So, we ought to do all we can in order to get as many people to pray the sinner’s prayer as possible, right?

The answer is not so simple. Yes, God does say even in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 45, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!” The problem here is not our desire to see this command obeyed. We ought to desire to see all come to Christ. The issue here is that saying the sinner’s prayer or finding oneself in a pew on Sunday morning does not a disciple make. A disciple is one who follows the teachings of someone else. It comes from the Latin word meaning “to teach,” and thus is connected to the idea of being a student. Of course, this is confirmed if we continue on in reading the Great Commission, when Christ says that the apostles are to make disciples by “teaching them to do all that I have commanded you.” Did Christ say to say the magical sinner’s prayer? No. He did say to cry out to our Father, to repent of our sin and wickedness, and trust in Christ fully for our eternal salvation. And He told His disciples how they ought to continue to preach this message.

When we “do church” we are not here merely to get as many people as we can in the door. We are here to make disciples, and all that entails. We are here to see the Spirit’s initial work in them, but also to nurture and guide them in what the Scriptures say. And we are here every Sunday to worship God with them in the ways He commands us to. We don’t decide how that looks; He does. God told Israel not to worship Him as the pagans worshiped their gods and struck men dead for doing so (see Leviticus 10). As the church, we desire to do as He commands, and we desire that He would use our labors to bring many to Christ. While we try to be winsome in the way we approach other people as to not offend them by our own sin, we still present the Gospel, knowing that it will offend. We cannot ever do something that would add to, take away, or even distract from the Whole Counsel of God. Yes, we consider what we wear, the tone of voice we use, or how the sanctuary looks. But at the end of the day, all of these things serve the purpose of elevating God and His Word. They do not serve us. Full stop.

And this is what it comes back to. We do not take one of God’s goals, the salvation of many sinners, and take matters in our own hands trying to accomplish it above all else (including some of His other goals). Why? Because we don’t save people in the first place. What our first and primary goal is always to glorify God in all that we do. We do what He commands. We preach because He told us to. We evangelize because He told us to. We love His people because He loved us. If we elevate the unreached sinner to the primary goal, then we lose twice; first because we have lost sight of the true goal, and second because we will not win the unreached sinner to what it really means to be a follower of Christ. We must engage in outreach by preaching the truth of God’s Word to the sinner, and then God gives the growth. The Spirit converts, not us.

So, as we engage in outreach, let us do so without compromising the message we have to give. Yes, there are things we don’t lead with, but we are to present the gospel plainly and clearly: that all men are sinners, that they deserve the wrath of God, but that Christ alone through His death and resurrection can reconcile them to God and bring them into an eternity in communion with Him. We do not avoid the topic of sin because it’ll scare people off. And we do not adorn our worship services with loud rock music that is “me-centered” because it’ll bring people in. Even if there is nothing untrue in those songs, are they really pointing people back to that gospel? Are they really elevating God and His Word above the people? Or are they just making people feel good? Yes, God is a good, good Father, and we are loved by Him. Yet why is that love so sweet? Why is that Grace so Amazing? Because we are dirty rotten sinners, and it took the death of the Holy Lamb of God to bring us into sweet communion with Him. If we’re not winning them with that message, we may be winning them, but not to Christ.