All of these questions are completely subjective. Depending on how you choose to evaluate them will determine which one you pick. No one had ever seen anyone do the things that Michael Jordan did, no one has ever seen a talent like Lebron do the things that Michael did at such an early age. It’s hard to compare. Yet, we do it every day. And the system we use to measure these “greats” is really the only key that determines who is “better”.
I’m afraid that the same thing happens in the American church. We’ve defined success by using a filter of who has the biggest church or the prettiest building. Who has the nicest car or gives the most money? All of these are factors we use to determine if people are a success and if a church is a success. This has created some major problems in our church structures and subsequently in the lives of the people who attend our church. Now that being said, I do think we need a measurement system. Some churches are don’t quite measure up, others are just phenomenal. I’m all for measuring and measurements, however, the question is how do we measure the success of the church?
Discovering Purpose
To find answers on how to measure success we need to discover what the purpose of a thing is. If you don’t understand the rules of basketball, it’s hard to tell how good a player Lebron is. The same goes for the Body of Christ.
So let’s take a quick look at the New Testament Church. Let’s back all the way up to Jesus. Jesus had a 3-year ministry. He lived to be about 33 years old, but was only in ministry for 3 years. During those 3 years, he had one focus; train the disciples. He spent every waking moment, and quite a few sleeping moments, with His group of revolutionaries. He didn’t come to heal everyone; he didn’t come to turn the world upside down. He didn’t come to make all the blind to see or all the lame to walk. Instead, he came to train 12 men. Everything he did for 3 years revolved around training His 12 apostles.
Yet today in the church, we look to see how many people we bring through the doors, how much money we have, or even sometimes how many people are being born again and we interpret that as success. Those things are GREAT! But they don’t automatically mean you are a success in what God has called YOU to do. Think about it this way, if a man is leading a giant church with thousands of people, but God actually called him to a remote village in Africa, he may look like he has success, but his success isn’t true success.
That’s the “distant” version, yet how many of us look at our lives and compare the success of what we are doing based on society’s “standards” of success and not God’s standards of success. I want a big church, I want a church building that reflects the awesomeness of God, and I want to be considered effective by my culture, but none of those things means that I am a success in God. I have to measure what God has called me to do against the results that I am getting. If He sent me to the twelve and I spend all my time trying to take care for the 5,000 then am I really a success or am I just spinning my wheels trying to be like everyone else. Let me say it again, I want churches to be big, I want churches to get people born again, I want to see churches that influence their territory, however I don’t want them to measure success by those things, but to measure their success against what God has called them to do.
Let’s stop trying to be Michael Jordan and just be Lebron. Let the pundits and professors analyze and criticize… but you be you in Christ. Define success as God has defined it for you!
DAVID COKER is a 1985 Rhema Bible College graduate, the founding apostle of Gateway Believers Fellowship in Carnesville, Ga. He is the founder of Breakthrough Apostolic Ministries Network (B.A.M.) He can be reached at www.gatewaybelievers.com.
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