The church is to be on mission with God. The God of the Bible is a missionary God who graciously pursues people.
That pursuit involves the work of the Holy Spirit and the proclamation of His people—and that proclamation often involves emphases from the local church.
The church exists to proclaim the gospel and demonstrate the kingdom of God in a lost and dying world. In being faithful to her calling, the church should be reaching people with the good news of the gospel and welcoming them in to a local community of believers.
Welcoming people into the local church should be the natural overflow of a local church's faithful ministry. However, many churches find themselves unfruitful in seeing new people to connect with their congregation.
Some people think that is a good thing—church is for believers and unbelievers should not be connected to that church. I'm not of the same view—covenant community (what we often call church membership) is for believers, but Christian community (what we often call attendance) is a place where evangelism should take place. Keep reading
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