How far have we fallen?

What is the primary goal of the Christian church? Is it going forth and making disciples (Matthew 28:19-20) as Jesus commanded or is it increasing our church membership? What do you think?

If you visit a lot of churches, you may start to notice a pattern. What I have observed is that the smaller churches are more interested in preaching the gospel from the Bible (God's Holy Word) than growing their attendance (of course they do want to grow, but it is not the emphasis) while the larger churches (most of them, not all) are more interested in entertaining and growing their membership while preaching sermon series after sermon series concentrating on life enhancement and "feel good" messages that will offend no one that are not necessarily their own material ("borrowing / downloading" other pastors sermons or preaching from another pastor's book). What should be the pattern for pastor's to follow? Preach God's Word from His revealed and inspired Word OR preach on topics (sermon series') that help people feel better concerning day-to-day issues while using Bible verses (not necessarily in context) to back up their points?

I'm not asking you which you prefer, but which is biblical? Let's go to our the ultimate example...how did Jesus preach? Jesus presented the gospel and invited those that believed His message to follow Him. He never pleaded or begged anyone to follow Him. Is this the way that pastors do it today? Hardly. They seem to beg and plead with people to answer an altar call. They have music and special lighting to enhance the mood. Did Jesus need these type of theatrics? No. He spoke the truth and left it up to you whether or not you believed His message. If you did, you followed Him. If you didn't, He never begged or pleaded with anyone to follow Him. Why do pastor's today NOT follow Jesus' example? Because they have fallen into sin and are trying to do it in their own power. They do not believe in the power of God to move and convict sinners via the Holy Spirit. They believe that it is up to them to convince sinners that they need Jesus without ever relying on the Holy Spirit to convict sinners of their sin first.

When pastor's and churches stop trying to DO "God's work" for Him and allow Him through obedience to work through them, then we will have sinners coming to Christ and churches growing in membership. We can't do anything for God. We must instead abide in Christ (Ephisians 3:1-4) and bow to the Lordship of Jesus and confess Him as our Savior.