I saw a picture like the one above the other day.

Many people right now in church circles liked it, and commented to say so. Before long the likes turned into some haters, haranguing churches that are trying to do things well on Sundays, like they were selling out. The tame comments included:

I thought we were moving away from that old attractional model! Now we’re going back to it?

How do we go deep—incarnate?

This! We have to make disciples, not attract more consumers!

I was poised to share the picture myself, because I believe deeply in the “make disciples who make disciples plan.” But then I hesitated as I realized I was in danger of being fooled by an either/or. Something of a straw man had been set up. A false dichotomy.

I was attracted to my wife the first time I saw her (still am!). Then she made it very clear that the relationship would cost a lot more than I thought. I committed, we grew together, had babies, you get the picture.

I came to Jesus at a church event some would call “attractional” many years ago. Perhaps “accessible” is a better word. People did their very best, to attract me to Jesus. It changed my mind about church. Sometime later the Spirit changed my heart about Jesus. I was discipled and developed by many, and have been deployed for him ever since.

Thinking Differently

So in this Covid-19 season, when people are so much more open and looking for hope, I thought, Why not think differently? Why not resist the either/or, and do both instead—as well as we can? Maybe playing to our strengths but not saying our preferences are the only way.

What if we put the left hand funnel on top of the right hand funnel, and join the two together, so it becomes an hourglass shaped discipleship pipeline?

If it’s raining outside and I want to get the water in, I don’t turn the thin end of the funnel toward the sky saying, “I just want good quality raindrops that are really serious about multiplying.” That’s bonkers. Some of the people I thought would qualify for that along the way turned out to be just drips. He died for all, so now we do not judge by human standards (2 Cor. 5:14-16).

But right now if we will open our eyes, we’ll see it’s a rainy season for the gospel because good news is in short supply.

Do Both

I love the entrepreneurial thinking in Ecclesiastes 11. It says if you wait and debate for the very best time, you probably missed it all ready. God says cast your bread on the waters—don’t be idle, sow morning and evening, here, there, everywhere. You don’t know whether either this will work or that will, or (I love the positive nature of this) whether BOTH will succeed! In other words, stop looking at what they’re doing and get on doing something.

Jesus says, “Whosoever will, may come!” He will never turn anyone away. He came to seek and save, and so many people now feel lost and alone, more ready for the hope we have to share than we are ready to share it. Get that funnel wide open!

Turn that funnel upwards and get as many in as possible, use all the social media you can, do it as well as you possibly can, to reach as many as you possibly can.

I did this exact type of thing through an online event called TODAY I planned with my NewThing friend Josh Howard, that we hosted on Friday, May 15th. We put the good news out across the globe for 24 hours through hundreds of evangelists telling the good news online in as many ways as we can through as many people as we can!

Get one funnel on top of the other, then, get duct tape and wrap it tight around the discipleship funnel onto the right hand side. Duct tape’s great because you can take it off later if you don’t need it but right now help those people who are just discovering Jesus through your Facebook or YouTube Watch party or whatever means.

Challenge them to lose their life to find it, follow Christ and devote themselves now—AND have in place ways to develop them as disciples and leaders, ambassadors of Christ deployed back in love and service with a message of hope to this broken world.

Don’t make it an either/or. The world right now needs you to do BOTH, as well as you can.

Ecclesiastes 11:6 (NLT) says, Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.

Anthony Delaney is a Leader at Ivy Church in Manchester. He is also the leader for New Thing and the LAUNCH conference. He is an author and hosts the television show “Transforming Life.”