In 1987, when I first became the pastor of Wheelersburg Baptist Church in rural southern Ohio, there was a sign hanging in the auditorium that recorded the church’s attendance and giving. As a pastor, you’ve probably seen such a sign. You may even have one in the church where you serve. They were all over Appalachia at the time.
In many churches, for all practical purposes, this sign is the most important symbol in the room, rivaling even the cross hanging up front. The sign often represents what matters most. Numbers. And specifically, increasing numbers.
When the numbers go up, it means we are successful. When they fall, it means we’re not successful.
We live in a success-oriented society. Sadly, we often define success in the church more by what “the sign” says than God’s Word.
As a young pastor many years ago, I found great encouragement in Kent Hughes’ book, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome (Tyndale House Publishers). This book remains must-read material for a shepherd. Hughes includes the following insightful quote, taken from Chuck Colson’s monthly newsletter for Prison Fellowship, Jubilee:
“By the time you read this, we will have dedicated our new national offices near Washington, D.C. As a result of this and other recent expansions, many people have written me to the effect that ‘God is obviously blessing Prison Fellowship’s ministry.’
“As much as I am sincerely certain that God is, indeed, blessing us, I believe even more certainly that it’s a dangerous and misguided policy to measure God’s blessing by standards of visible, tangible, material’ success.’
“The inference is that when things are prospering ‘God is blessing us’ and, conversely, when things are going poorly, or unpublicized, God’s blessing is not upon the work or is unimportant…We must continuously use the measure of our obedience to the guidelines of His Word as the real—and only—standard of our ‘success,’ not some more supposedly tangible or glamorous scale (pp. 37-38).“
It’s not just pastors who struggle with the success syndrome, either. The brothers and sisters we shepherd face this battle as well. It shows up in how they assess their families, work, and church ministry.
Think back to the ministry you did in the past year. Were you successful? Perhaps you taught a Sunday School class. Every week you spent several hours studying the Word of God, preparing a lesson, praying for your students, sending them notes of encouragement, and perhaps visiting them to pray with them. And what was the outcome of all this effort?
Your class grew by 25%, and people sent encouraging notes to express appreciation. Does that mean you were successful?
On the other hand, perhaps your class declined by 25%, and there was very little expressed appreciation. Does that mean you were unsuccessful?
Be careful. There can be a lot of reasons for the Sunday School’s growth and the lack of growth. Perhaps a year ago, a sister church closed its doors, and people from that church trickled into your class and caused your attendance to go up. Does that mean you were successful?
Or this past year, you engaged in the ministry of admonishing, as the passage you were teaching said you must do. And so, you lovingly challenged some of your class members, one on one, to deal with particular sin issues. And they resisted. They didn’t send cards of appreciation. They even stopped coming. Does that mean you were unsuccessful?
Perhaps you lead a children’s ministry. Every week you invest a lot of time loving the little ones. You’re on your knees for them in your prayer closet. You have them over to your house for game nights. You write letters to their parents to encourage them. You go with them, visit their friends, and invite them to learn about Jesus.
The results? In the past year, they definitely loved the games, but when you gave the lesson, it seemed like they weren’t even listening. And it was rare to see them attend two weeks in a row. Or perhaps they did come regularly and listened well, and you were privileged to witness three of them make professions of faith in Christ. Does the former mean you were unsuccessful, and the latter mean you were successful?
Perhaps your ministry oversees the greeting team, provides quality care in the nursery, or mobilizes Christ-honoring care for shut-ins. The question is, what’s the measuring stick to know whether you did a good job or if you were successful?
We need a biblical understanding of success, which Paul provides in 1 Corinthians 4:1-5. Let’s consider carefully how Paul himself processed the question of success.
He’s quite pastoral as he shares these words in verses 1-2:
So according to Paul, what is success? He says success is being a faithful steward of what God has entrusted us. Success, at its core, is faithfulness.
That’s certainly helpful, but it raises another vital question. What is faithfulness? Some say the Cleveland Browns have faithful fans (I’m one of them) because they remain loyal to their team one losing season after another. Is that what faithfulness is, just hanging in there through the tough times? That may be part of it, but it’s not what Paul has in mind.
Faithfulness is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, according to Galatians 5:22. It comes from God through the merit of His faithful Son, who reproduces His faithfulness in those who abide in Him (John 15:4). This means an unregenerate person cannot exhibit the kind of faithfulness that people indwelt by the Spirit of God can exhibit.
To be faithful means “to be full of faith,” for our faith plugs us into Christ and His power. Christ enables us to be as He was and is “trustworthy, dependable, reliable,” no matter what is happening (or not happening) around us.
Take a close look at the following definition of success. Your longevity in ministry is at stake.
Fellow servants, we were successful in our ministries last year if we were faithful. According to Paul, success has little to do with what we can see. This is why he says in verse 3, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.”
This is the truth. We can’t determine success. We don’t see enough to make that assessment. Paul says in verse 4, “For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.”
Only the Lord can make an accurate assessment of our ministry. And He will do that, says Paul in verse 5, when He comes again and “brings to light the things now hidden in darkness… Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
It’s not that numbers don’t matter. There is a book in our Bible called Numbers. And the book of Acts records the number of people God saved and added to His church. Numbers are important. Numbers can be a helpful indicator.
Declining numbers may indicate that we’re not doing the work of the ministry as we ought. Ministry is a work, and we may need to work harder or smarter. Perhaps the numbers are saying that we’re not inviting our neighbors into our homes for Bible studies, that we’re not a welcoming church, or that we’re not being faithful.
On the other hand, declining numbers may indicate that we are being faithful, that we’re doing the work of the ministry, and that we’re seeking to make solid disciples rather than settling for emotional decisions. It is this commitment to do ministry by the Book that has caused some people to leave.
Growing numbers may indicate faithfulness, too, that we are taking evangelism seriously and that God is saving people and adding them to our number. Or those increasing numbers may indicate that we are merely transferring sheep from other churches.
So, the numbers matter. But they don’t determine success. Faithfulness does. And faithfulness is something that God alone can produce. And when He does, He deserves all the glory.
Let us be faithful, my fellow pastor, by His grace and for His glory. And let’s remind ourselves frequently that success is being a faithful steward of what God has entrusted to us, in good times and bad.
Here are a couple suggestions.
I’m indebted to my friend Randy Patten (President of Team Focus Ministries) for this ministry-saving counsel.
What Makes a Pastor Successful
Dealing with Unmet Expectations…By Giving Thanks
Learning to See Thorns as God Sees Them: The Stewardship of Suffering
The post The Sign of Pastoral Success appeared first on Focus on the Family.
Continue reading...
In many churches, for all practical purposes, this sign is the most important symbol in the room, rivaling even the cross hanging up front. The sign often represents what matters most. Numbers. And specifically, increasing numbers.
When the numbers go up, it means we are successful. When they fall, it means we’re not successful.
We live in a success-oriented society. Sadly, we often define success in the church more by what “the sign” says than God’s Word.
Liberating ministry from the success syndrome
As a young pastor many years ago, I found great encouragement in Kent Hughes’ book, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome (Tyndale House Publishers). This book remains must-read material for a shepherd. Hughes includes the following insightful quote, taken from Chuck Colson’s monthly newsletter for Prison Fellowship, Jubilee:
“By the time you read this, we will have dedicated our new national offices near Washington, D.C. As a result of this and other recent expansions, many people have written me to the effect that ‘God is obviously blessing Prison Fellowship’s ministry.’
“As much as I am sincerely certain that God is, indeed, blessing us, I believe even more certainly that it’s a dangerous and misguided policy to measure God’s blessing by standards of visible, tangible, material’ success.’
“The inference is that when things are prospering ‘God is blessing us’ and, conversely, when things are going poorly, or unpublicized, God’s blessing is not upon the work or is unimportant…We must continuously use the measure of our obedience to the guidelines of His Word as the real—and only—standard of our ‘success,’ not some more supposedly tangible or glamorous scale (pp. 37-38).“
It’s not just pastors who struggle with the success syndrome, either. The brothers and sisters we shepherd face this battle as well. It shows up in how they assess their families, work, and church ministry.
Taking pastoral inventory
Think back to the ministry you did in the past year. Were you successful? Perhaps you taught a Sunday School class. Every week you spent several hours studying the Word of God, preparing a lesson, praying for your students, sending them notes of encouragement, and perhaps visiting them to pray with them. And what was the outcome of all this effort?
Your class grew by 25%, and people sent encouraging notes to express appreciation. Does that mean you were successful?
On the other hand, perhaps your class declined by 25%, and there was very little expressed appreciation. Does that mean you were unsuccessful?
Be careful. There can be a lot of reasons for the Sunday School’s growth and the lack of growth. Perhaps a year ago, a sister church closed its doors, and people from that church trickled into your class and caused your attendance to go up. Does that mean you were successful?
Or this past year, you engaged in the ministry of admonishing, as the passage you were teaching said you must do. And so, you lovingly challenged some of your class members, one on one, to deal with particular sin issues. And they resisted. They didn’t send cards of appreciation. They even stopped coming. Does that mean you were unsuccessful?
Perhaps you lead a children’s ministry. Every week you invest a lot of time loving the little ones. You’re on your knees for them in your prayer closet. You have them over to your house for game nights. You write letters to their parents to encourage them. You go with them, visit their friends, and invite them to learn about Jesus.
The results? In the past year, they definitely loved the games, but when you gave the lesson, it seemed like they weren’t even listening. And it was rare to see them attend two weeks in a row. Or perhaps they did come regularly and listened well, and you were privileged to witness three of them make professions of faith in Christ. Does the former mean you were unsuccessful, and the latter mean you were successful?
Perhaps your ministry oversees the greeting team, provides quality care in the nursery, or mobilizes Christ-honoring care for shut-ins. The question is, what’s the measuring stick to know whether you did a good job or if you were successful?
A Biblical understanding of success
We need a biblical understanding of success, which Paul provides in 1 Corinthians 4:1-5. Let’s consider carefully how Paul himself processed the question of success.
He’s quite pastoral as he shares these words in verses 1-2:
So according to Paul, what is success? He says success is being a faithful steward of what God has entrusted us. Success, at its core, is faithfulness.
That’s certainly helpful, but it raises another vital question. What is faithfulness? Some say the Cleveland Browns have faithful fans (I’m one of them) because they remain loyal to their team one losing season after another. Is that what faithfulness is, just hanging in there through the tough times? That may be part of it, but it’s not what Paul has in mind.
Biblical faithfulness is not natural but supernatural.
Faithfulness is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, according to Galatians 5:22. It comes from God through the merit of His faithful Son, who reproduces His faithfulness in those who abide in Him (John 15:4). This means an unregenerate person cannot exhibit the kind of faithfulness that people indwelt by the Spirit of God can exhibit.
To be faithful means “to be full of faith,” for our faith plugs us into Christ and His power. Christ enables us to be as He was and is “trustworthy, dependable, reliable,” no matter what is happening (or not happening) around us.
Take a close look at the following definition of success. Your longevity in ministry is at stake.
Fellow servants, we were successful in our ministries last year if we were faithful. According to Paul, success has little to do with what we can see. This is why he says in verse 3, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.”
This is the truth. We can’t determine success. We don’t see enough to make that assessment. Paul says in verse 4, “For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.”
Only the Lord can make an accurate assessment of our ministry. And He will do that, says Paul in verse 5, when He comes again and “brings to light the things now hidden in darkness… Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
What about the numbers?
It’s not that numbers don’t matter. There is a book in our Bible called Numbers. And the book of Acts records the number of people God saved and added to His church. Numbers are important. Numbers can be a helpful indicator.
Declining numbers may indicate that we’re not doing the work of the ministry as we ought. Ministry is a work, and we may need to work harder or smarter. Perhaps the numbers are saying that we’re not inviting our neighbors into our homes for Bible studies, that we’re not a welcoming church, or that we’re not being faithful.
On the other hand, declining numbers may indicate that we are being faithful, that we’re doing the work of the ministry, and that we’re seeking to make solid disciples rather than settling for emotional decisions. It is this commitment to do ministry by the Book that has caused some people to leave.
Growing numbers may indicate faithfulness, too, that we are taking evangelism seriously and that God is saving people and adding them to our number. Or those increasing numbers may indicate that we are merely transferring sheep from other churches.
So, the numbers matter. But they don’t determine success. Faithfulness does. And faithfulness is something that God alone can produce. And when He does, He deserves all the glory.
Let us be faithful, my fellow pastor, by His grace and for His glory. And let’s remind ourselves frequently that success is being a faithful steward of what God has entrusted to us, in good times and bad.
Action Plan – Where to go next?
Here are a couple suggestions.
- Memorize promises of God found in Scripture that deal with hardship. Start with 1 Corinthians 10:13, Galatians 6:9, or Hebrews 6:10. If we’re going to minister for the long haul, we must learn and live by the promises of God rather than our feelings, especially during seasons of trial.
- Write down this sentence, put it in a prominent place (it’s under the glass on my desk), and shepherd the church in light of its truth:
I’m indebted to my friend Randy Patten (President of Team Focus Ministries) for this ministry-saving counsel.
Related:
What Makes a Pastor Successful
Dealing with Unmet Expectations…By Giving Thanks
Learning to See Thorns as God Sees Them: The Stewardship of Suffering
The post The Sign of Pastoral Success appeared first on Focus on the Family.
Continue reading...