There is natural tendency in us all to focus on how our disciples look and how they perform. It is a quick, easy, and measurable way of assessment. But real gospel preaching and teaching will drive past the visible and superficial to address the attitudes of the heart and it won’t stop until it gets there. The heart is what the gospel is designed to transform and when that happens everything else will fall into place.
The goal of a pastor and the leaders of a church should be to generate proper spiritual attitudes in the hearts of the people. They can’t just say, ‘You need to do this, and you need to do that.’ They must generate the spiritual attitudes that will motivate the people to right behavior…If the right kind of spiritual attitudes are present in a church, the structure will take care of itself, because Spirit-controlled people are going to do Spirit-led things. -John MacArthur, The Master’s Plan for the Church.