Darla Smith, lay minister at God's House in Lafayette, IN, recently asked her facebook peers to define ministry success. I felt it'd be good to hear what other PCG folk have to say on the matter, so, with her permission, I am posting her questions here for your discussion:
What defines success in your ministry?
Does how busy you are in your ministry say you are successful?
Does the feedback you gain from people define your success? (ex. people telling you that the sermon or lesson helped them, encouraged them, etc.)
Do the souls that are saved or people who have grown spiritually while sitting under your ministry define whether you are successful in what you do?
Is it quantity or quality?
Or is it "just doing what God has told you to do?"
Do you believe that God calls you to a ministry and then never places it on others to use you in that ministry? Or do we, as ministers, always have to create our own opportunity to minister?
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This is a good question. It has been pointed out that by modern standards of success many of God's ministers in the Bible were utter failures. Noah was a failure. He preached for years and only a few were saved. The greatest man that ever lived apart from Christ (John Baptist) was a failure. He failed to convince the religious and secular leaders and eventually lost his head for the business. By the worlds standards Jesus Christ was an absolute failure. Those that He came to seek and to save first, the Jews, as a nation rejected Him and their house was left desolate. So by the worlds standards of success these would likely have been fired from their position based upon their 'performance.' So we need to CHECK ourselves that we do not fall in the trap of thinking like the world and measure ourselves or others according to the worlds standards.
ReplyDeleteKen ask's: Or is it "just doing what God has told you to do?"
Obedience is the most important lesson of all that we must learn as believers. We are not called to strategize and in turn find 'success.' We are called to seek God for His will and walk in it. We cannot contribute anything human or earthly to what God is doing without defiling His order. We are told 7 Times in a row in Revelation 2 and 3 to 'hear what the Spirit is saying unto the churches.' The Holy Spirit has to be leading this thing or we are doing our own thing independent of God. I think about how the Holy Spirit said, 'Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul' and also forbade Paul from preaching in Asia. (Acts 16:6) If Paul don't hear from God then he goes on doing his own thing and no telling what happens.
Ken also asked: "Is it quantity or quality?"
The Industrial Revolution has warped our thinking terribly. Faster faster faster... more more more... until we have evangelistic methods that are not about making disciples, but about boasting at the next meeting the number of people that were saved in the last meeting. This has to end if ever we are to fulfill the Great Commission. A person is not saved until they are born again. A person is not born again until they have been supernaturally transformed into a new creature- baptized into Jesus Christ by the Spirit so that 'IF any man be in Christ he is a new creature..' It begins with repentance and faith unto absolute surrender to Christ. They must repent, be justified, regenerated and adopted. This makes for a person that can stand on their own two feet spiritually. You don't have to call these type of people every week to see if they are still in the faith. They are so changed that they are now children of God in a real sense. They did burn for the world and sin and now they burn for Christ. Until a person is brought into that state we have not 'succeeded' in bringing them to Christ and they cannot rightly be said to be hopefully converted.
In summary: 1. Success is not popularity 2. Success is not necessarily numbers
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Ken, these are wonderfully thought provoking questions to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Numbers do not equal success. For if that were the case Jesus would have failed miserably after his sermon on the mount only the 12 remained and He asked Peter would they leave too. Buildings are not a sign of success. Jesus didn't even have a place to lay His head and most of His services were outdoors or He borrowed the "religious" folks' temple, which by the way they ran Him out of on occasion. Success is not becoming a "full-time" pastor or other minister, because we are all called to be full-time ministers.
ReplyDeleteBefore we can define "success" we must first define what we are to be successful at? The question asked was success in ministry. There is only one guide to find out if we are being successful are people getting saved!! Jesus Told us to go everywhere making disciples. If we are not making disciples, and leading people into an intimate love relationship with the Lord and His Word, then we are not successful in ministry!
Eddie Jones recently wrote this article on the NPN site titled What Determines Success in Ministry.
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