In the age of AI, it is more difficult than ever to find your own unique voice and keep it.

There is always the temptation to let technology speak for you. Ask it a question, let it generate an answer, and then repeat it to the masses.

Finding your voice is risky. You might omit some details, have a grammatical error, or could have said it more clearly. There is always a recommendation to make it sound different and more acceptable.

God gave you a unique personality, experiences, and point of view. Your tone, mannerisms, and clichés make you distinctive.

Don’t lose your voice; the kingdom of God needs you, not a technologically edited version of you.

(AI made four recommendations on how I could improve this post)

“It is easy to have a big crowd, but I am trying to build a congregation.”

I’ve heard dozens of preachers say something like that in a sermon. They talk about churches with larger attendance and then offer that line as an explanation. The implication is that something more spiritual is at work in their smaller church and that, somehow, being small is evidence of being more faithful.

Let me tell you something: building a crowd is incredibly hard.

Ask any new comedian or aspiring musician. Getting people to show up takes charisma and connection. It takes communication, advertising, excitement, evaluation, and continual improvement. It requires offering something people value, and that meets a real need in their lives.

I’ve spent the last twelve years leading one church, and it’s taken intense work every year to get to the point where we are beginning to generate a crowd.

And now, people are coming. It is incredibly exciting, but it wasn’t easy.

I believe the first challenge is to build a crowd so we have the opportunity to impact people for Jesus. Then we can build a congregation.

A crowd gives us people to disciple. A congregation gives those people a place to belong. From there, we can teach them, lead them toward a deeper relationship with Jesus, and help them develop deeper relationships with one another.

Crowds were never the goal. People are the goal.

So I thank God that He is blessing our work and sending us more and more people. I don’t take that lightly. I see every new person who walks through our doors as a divine opportunity.

The crowd isn’t the destination. It is the opportunity.

And now that God is giving us a crowd, our responsibility is to build something great for Jesus.