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A couple of days ago a thought came to me. I'm all about outreach and as a traveling evangelist I have the opportunity to visit many churches. Obviously, they are not all the same. Some might be classified as small, while others might be big. There are those that would be considered "traditional" and those that would be "contemporary". I don't think those kind of categories really matter when compared to what each church is striving to do. In the same way that God uniquely created all of us, he has led Christians to start and lead very unique churches. God is not the one who came up with the categories we use. The truth is that what really matters is whether the church is focused on reaching or keeping. That is the question that every pastor must ask himself constantly. Are we doing this to reach or keep? Are we doing this to reach those who do not know Christ and to introduce them to the community of believers called the church or are we doing this to keep those who are already here? The church should never be about maintenance. Why have so many churches struggled with growth both spiritually and numerically? They have focused on keeping instead of on reaching. By the way, if you are having trouble with the ones you have, you can go out and get some new ones.