Success... What is it in ministry? Seriously… do we really know just how incredibly huge this question is?
I have met many people in my days who are totally codependent on how well their ministry is going. In fact, it is a daily struggle for me, and I am pretty self-depricating. What happens is they begin to replace the God of the Bible with the god of "here's-what-I-can-and-have-done-for-you, God". It is a serious trap. It is downright idolatry! I often hear of pastors who only read church growth books, seeking the latest greatest to have a larger church. The last thing a pastor needs to read is another church growth book if they are struggling with this! it just flat out needs to be repented from!
I say this so strongly because in my experience, I have seen more and more pastors and Christian workers eat this blue pill of unreality. It eats their lunch! Why? Because, just like any false god or idol, there is no life there! No matter how big your work is, no matter how many you have won to Jesus, no matter how many poor you have fed, how many people you have prayed for...it simply is never enough.
Please don't hear me as saying that churches shouldn't try to grow. The vision of our church is to honor God by helping as many people as possible become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Go get a large church for His glory! However, ministry is a SERIOUS trap for anyone who wants to get "life" from it. No wonder there are so many cults. No wonder there are so many false teachers. No wonder there is so much competition between churches. I mean, my very life is at stake, isn't it? I get my value and worth from that fact that I am such a big shot in the kingdom, eh?
The Christian minister of the gospel is to be first and foremost a CHRISTIAN!! In other words, "you shall have no other gods before me" applies seriously, and perhaps most clearly, to those who are Christ's ambassadors here on the earth.
I know this is strong language, and I've gotten a bit huffy here, but if you are in ministry, any kind of ministry, I ask you, no, I beg you...Get your life from Jesus! Leave the false religion of numbers and money and buildings and programs and amount of staff and budgets. Come to Jesus! Worship the Almighty God! Make the focus of your ministry to gain as many worshippers for Jesus NOT FOR YOU!!! Daily remind yourself of this. Root out mercilessly any hint of this creeping into your life. And then, use your numbers and money and buildings and programs and staff and budgets to build as many worshippers of Jesus that you possibly can!
Rule number one has always been and continues to be no matter what your format of church or ministry is - It ain't about you...OR positively spoken...It is all about God and his Glory.
If you take yourself too seriously, if you can't just stop and flat out laugh histarically at yourself and how God uses you IN SPITE of yourself...you are in deep trouble.
God has blessed me by letting me know that I am incredibly ordinary. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 2:1-13 have really moved me lately:
“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”-- but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no-one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.”
1 Corinthians 2:1-13, NIV.
Paul, my hero Paul, the man outside of Jesus that I admire more than anyone for his intellect and ministry skill, is basically saying that even with all of his smarts, his immense ministry capabilities and sufferings, even with all of that he is convinced that success in ministry really only means that he has relied on the Holy Spirit, not on his own wisdom, to reach people.
Paul is convinced that really cool arguments, or really cool powerpoint, or candles and guitars or worship bands, or slick talks or anything else is not what changes people's lives. It is only when we use words that are the Spirit's - the "spiritual truths in spiritual words" in verse 13. To me, that means - go ahead, use that stuff (in fact, we do at Hope!) But never, and here's where the absolute war takes place in the heart of the pastor, never allow yourself to rely on ANY of it to do the trick in people's lives. God uses us to communicate his truth to the absolute center of another human being in spiritual words - not slick, or even necessary well thought out - just his words. He works in us, and through us, to others. It is about God from start to finish.
Those who wish to only do ministry if they are "successful by church growth standards" will need to daily repent to allow God to work. Otherwise, their ministry will be about them, and only allow their deity to grow or shrink by whatever measure they apply to it.
I will build my church...
~Jesus
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