Now this is a question that every pastor, and every Christian for that matter, must wrestle with at some time or another; “What is the goal of the church?” Of course, we know that Jesus makes the answer to this question very clear in Matthew 28:19-20. The goal of the church is to accomplish the Great Commission; to make disciples of all nations for the glory of God.

Most do not argue about the goal of the church, instead they argue about how to accomplish that goal. For what it’s worth, here’s what I’ve learned in my brief tenure as a pastor.

1. Big events and great entertainment draw a crowd, but they do not build a church.
2. Big events and great entertainment do not make disciples, they make a very dangerous class of “Christian” consumers.
3. Big events and great entertainment set you up for failure in the future. If you’re built on the next big thing, the next thing has to be bigger than the last thing.
4. Big events and great entertainment will wear out your pastors and leaders and leave your people frustrated and disillusioned.
5. Big events and great entertainment leave your people looking for the next big thing. When in fact, the next big thing should be next Sunday.

To my pastor friends, I want to encourage you to resist steadfastly the temptation to entertain the masses. As you look at the ministry of Christ, you’ll notice that He never sought a crowd just for the sake of boasting about His numbers. In fact, you read often of Him retreating from the crowd and other times of the crowd retreating from Him at His harsh words.

The bottom line is this: what you win them with is what you’ll keep them with. Don’t get caught in the trap of entertaining Christians or scheduling events to get the huge crowd to show up. In the end, the church is tasked with the responsibility of making disciples of all nations. Instead of creating “Christian” consumers, we should be making disciples that are disciple-makers.