"With the days we have left, with the breath we have left, may we proclaim him and be faithful," Chandler said in his final appeal. "And with angst, and with gut-wrenching prayer and belief in the power of the gospel expect and long to see fruit, fruit in the depth of maturity and fruit in the salvation from those in our neighborhoods, in our cities, in our states and to the ends of the earth."
Matt Chandler discussed the unnecessary schism where some churches focus on faithfulness to the scriptures at the expense of bringing more to Christ, while others focus more on numerical growth at the expense of discipleship. Both faitfhulness and fruitfulness is essential, according to Chandler. From a 2013 Advance conference in Raleigh, NC.
1 But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready,
3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men?
4 For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apol'los," are you not merely men?
5 What then is Apol'los? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
6 I planted, Apol'los watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
8 He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor.
9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it.
11 For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw--
13 each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
17 If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are.
18 Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness,"
20 and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."
21 So let no one boast of men. For all things are yours,
22 whether Paul or Apol'los or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours;
23 and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's.
1 Corinthians 4
