The Church: Spiritual Nursery or Army?

I was recently reading a book and came across this question, "Is the purpose of the church to create a spiritual nursery, or a spiritual army?" That's a great question and how a church answers it will determine its philosophy of ministry.

For example, the "nursery" philosophy looks inward, focuses on comfort, and is characterized by convenience. These spiritual infants scream when their personal needs are not met, and bicker constantly among themselves. Believers in "nursery" churches say soul winning is important, but they never lead a person to Christ. They say prayer is important, but they don't show up for prayer meetings. They fail to see their own spiritual needs, but can clearly point out the faults of others. They are probably very religious, but full of hypocrisy. They hope everyone else is hearing the message the pastor is preaching, but don't think it applies to them. The pastor of a "nursery" church is expected to make every hospital visit and be available at every member's beckoned call. His time is consumed with wiping noses, cleaning up messes, correcting those who are too immature to practice personal discipline. etc. Is this really why God established His Church... to pacify spiritual infants?

On the other hand, the church that sees itself in the business of building a spiritual army is just the opposite. The "army" style church is united and knows its God-given purpose is to train soldiers. The "army" style church looks outward, and realizes the urgency of their search and rescue mission. It builds the troops by identifying prospective soldiers then recruiting, training, and motivating them for service. Each soldier knows his duty, engages in the battle, and disregards his own comfort. There is no time to sit in worship of the past or to relax and watch the officers perform. Those in the "army" style church realize they are in a war and they desperately need each other. The pastor of an "army" style church focuses on the objective, provides direction, trains the trainers, motivates the troops, and leads them into battle for the souls of men and to defeat the enemy.

Our church leaders agreed that EBC must focus our efforts on building a spiritual army for our Lord. We are engaged in spiritual warfare, not childcare. Our anthem is "Onward Christian Soldiers." The Apostle Paul told us to put on our armor. Matthew 28:19-20 records our marching orders and from Acts 1:8, we have derived our four year plan. We are marching into battle! Can we count on you?