Rethinking Success

In his latest book, ChurchMorph, Eddie Gibbs identifies the megatrends in ministry, how different ecclesial communities are redefining church. It is another reminder of how turbulent is our age, how much church is changing, ministries are reconfiguring. A fair amount of this is driven by the need to more effectively reach a lost world. Some of it is moved by a desire to be successful. I believe pastors are no different from anyone else. It’s in our nature to want to succeed. No one wants to fail. So books like Gladwell’s Outliers are hugely popular. We like to discover that which explains extraordinary human achievement. We want to achieve, successfully provide leadership, be it in a corporation, on a team, or in a church.

 

This is all on mind today because I am talking to my students about assessing ministry. It’s not an easy subject. I just know that if we are not careful, we can get terribly off course. Years ago, I went on a morning run with Kent Hughes, and he confirmed a story he had written in Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome. It began with the account of a pastor who one day borrowed a truck, backed it up to his church office, impassively threw his office furniture and entire library into the bed of the truck, and drove some miles to a city dump, where he tossed it all unto the awaiting piles of garbage—rotting melons, dead rodents, and discarded vacuum bags. It was his way of putting behind his overwhelming sense of failure. He never returned to ministry.

 

My guess is, with all the movement in ministry today, there are a lot of pastors with similar temptations. And maybe like this pastor, they are operating from misguided measurements. Hughes wrote the book out of his own experience and temptation to do the same thing. He was set apart to lead a daughter church, for he was a young up and comer, and everything pointed to success. But it turned out to be a failure, and it led to a dark night of the soul. But out of the ashes, he came to grips with a clearer theological assessment of success and failure. And though his book was written over 21 years ago, his words are as timely and needed as ever.

 

How does one measure success in life? In ministry? Is it even appropriate to aim for success?  Some in ministry automatically assume that ambition of any sort is of the flesh. But you can’t get away from the fact that God invites us to dream (Ecc. 11), to live an abundant life (John 10:10), as well as seek His blessing (I Chron. 4:9-10). Lot’s of people gravitated to the Jabez prayer phenomenon, and I would guess it centered around a passion for God’s favor, for a larger world, and yes, for success.

 

But here’s what we cannot overlook—

First, Scripture makes it clear that promotion is God’s prerogative, for God’s purposes, in God’s way (I Peter 5:6). There was a moment God lifted up Joshua, but this is God’s doing, not ours. It’s up to Him to do the lifting, as well as the putting down.

 

Second, while we should be about measuring success, the reality is that you cannot measure with the same precision of business. It’s not to say that ministry shouldn’t have some criteria. There’s no virtue in not holding ourselves accountable. But just finishing Jeremiah, I am reminded again, that by earthly standards, he would have been considered a failure. Next to no one took his calling seriously, and almost no one listened to him. Isaiah was warned, in his calling, that he would speak to an unresponsive generation. They remind us that growth in numbers does not automatically assume a thing.

 

Many of the early church fathers, for all of their greatness, did not die with the most toys. Gregory, the great bishop of Cappadocia, died alone, considering himself a failure. John Chrysostom, the greatest preacher of his day, died in a rain ditch. Martin Bucer, the formidable reformer, was thrown out by his people, and died in exile. The apostle Paul, for all of his success, considered himself the scum of the earth.

 

Third, the longer I am in ministry, the more God changes my misguided assumptions of success, and places far more important questions in front of me—

-first—for my life—

  -have I been faithful?

  -did I declare everything God called me to declare?

  -did I follow the Spirit’s leading and step into what He is doing?

  -have I completed what God called for me to complete?

 

-second—for my ministry—

  -is this a community where I can confess my sin?

  -is this a place where one hears God’s word?

  -is this a place where prayer is taken seriously?

  -is this a place that cares if I am sick?

  -is this a place markedly different from the world?

 

(A lot of the other stuff does not matter so much anymore)

 

Finally, I continue to be warned that success, for all of its blessings, can be one of God’s greatest tests. Tough times can do us in, but good times, successful ministries, can be more dangerous. Proverbs 27:21 suggests that success may be our hottest crucible, our more severe test. As I watch the lives of successful people, all too many end up imploding. Like rivers that expand, they all too often break the levy and do lots of damage. They stand as a warning to be careful what I want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Freddy T. Wyatt]

Awesome thoughts! Just tweeted a link to this!