“Now I’m not saying that large churches are bad. I pastor a massive church with well over 10,000 people showing up each weekend. I’m simply saying that the moment our primary focus shifts from developing biblical community and iron-sharpening-iron relationships to growing the church larger, genuine discipleship becomes nearly impossible.
And the first sign that biblical community, life-on-on life relationships, and the discipleship that flows out of it are no longer a priority is when we stop keeping track of individuals. People become numbers. . . . Total attendance replaces individual attendance as the key metric. And when that happens, there’s no longer any way to know if they’re fulfilling the Great Commission or simply cycling an ever-changing crowd through a revolving door.
If we don’t know who’s coming, it’s impossible to know who’s growing.”
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Larry Osborne, Mission Creep: The Five Subtle Shifts That Sabotage Evangelism & Discipleship. Unknown. Kindle Edition, locations 849-863.