The Subtle Difference Between a Success Mindset and a Fruitfulness Mindset in Ministry

Do you aim at success or fruitfulness in your ministry? 

It’s often hard to tell the difference because they look so similar on the outside.

One way to tell which side you’re on is to analyze the questions you ask – either in your own mind, or of others – after a church function. Here is a baker’s dozen of such questions. Which do you ask more often?

1. Success: “How many people came?” Fruitfulness: “How many people were converted?”

2. Success: “How many people did I impress?” Fruitfulness: “How many people did I impact?”

3. Success: “How many people signed up to serve?” Fruitfulness: “How many people signed up to serve?”

4. Success: “To what degree are my volunteers carrying out my directions?” Fruitfulness: “To what degree are my volunteers directing people toward Jesus?”

5. Success: “How many visitors came to the church website today?” Fruitfulness: “How many unchurched people visited our service on Sunday because they saw our website?”   Continue at Pastoralized

The Curse Of Motivational Speaking

Last Sunday, a young man came to see me after our church service. He is the kind of guy who shows up at church once in a while and then disappears for a season. My guess is that he goes around churches sampling sermons and looking for answers. On this visit, he asked that I help him to overcome a failure in his life, and it was a failure to progress. He said that his greatest problem is that he does not believe in himself. Could I help him believe in himself so that he could become successful?

I asked him whether he was a Christian. His answer was, “Do I really need to be a Christian in order to be successful? Are you telling me that all those successful people out there are Christians? Aren’t there general principles that I can apply to my life—whether I am a Christian or not—that can catapult me to success?” I challenged him to answer that question himself. After all, I was sure he had done enough rounds among motivational speakers to have the answer.

 

“That is the problem,” he said, “I have been told that such principles exist and I have tried them. They seem to work for a while and then I am back to my old self again. I want you to help me find that formula that will help me go forward and never slide back to the place where I do not believe in myself.” To cut the long story short, I finally persuaded him of the need for reconciliation with God before anyone can break free from the frustrating rut that God locks unreconciled sinners in.

 

I gave him a booklet to read, entitled, What is a Biblical Christian? When we met the following day, he was honest enough to tell me that he was disappointed with what he read because it was not telling him what he wanted to hear. “What I want to know is how I can be successful. This booklet did not say anything about that.” I repeated what I told him earlier. What he needed was not belief in himself but belief in a Saviour sent from heaven. He needed forgiveness as a foundation for his life.   Continue at Conrad Mbewe

Pastors: You Need To Grow Too!

Being a pastor can be one of the most enjoyable and fruitful roles to play in the scheme of God’s redemptive story. Not only do you get to see lives transformed by Christ (Col 1:28), but you also get to be an active part of seeing that process and relationship move forward. It is this growth toward being more like Christ that drives what we do. We’re driven to see the church grow, people grow, and gospel opportunities grow.  However, if we’re not careful, the most important area of growth can become neglected, our own spiritual growth. 

Howard Hendricks used to tell us that in seminary we would learn more than most people will ever know about God and the scriptures.  And yet, that knowledge doesn’t always lead to passionate growth. Far too often our passion to grow everything else is stronger than it is to grow our own souls. 

Paul understood this tendency and the dangers it presented to the lives of spiritual leaders and pastors.  He tells Timothy his young protégé in 1 Timothy 4:16, “Pay close attention to your life and your teaching; persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers” (HCSB). There is an alluring temptation to allow the external execution of ministry to far exceed that of our spiritual and physical health.  It seems that Paul is stating that when you’re vigilant with your spiritual health and consistently submitting to God’s Word and leading, the external growth will follow. The ability to do this well reflects a deep sense of trust.

As we achieve success, it becomes easy to misplace the source of that success. The better we do, the better we think we are. When we focus on our spiritual growth, we are reminded and connected to the One who is powering the growth. Christ’s work on our behalf and then His working through us personally is the fuel for our whole life.  In John 15:5, Jesus states, “you can do nothing without ME.” From a biblical and theological standpoint we all amen this statement. But in reality at some point in our journey, as the Lord blesses our ministry, we begin to equate God’s using us as Him needing us. Then it is only a short step until we begin believing the hype about ourselves.   Continue at Eric Mason

Why Rooting Joy in Ministry Success Is Disastrous

Is there a greater thrill than to know someone's life has been permanently transformed because you reached out to them?

It is sweet to know your sister was saved through your series of conversations, or that you helped to disciple a struggling couple whose marriage was headed toward an inevitable divorce, or that you preached a sermon that God was kind enough to use in someone's spiritual awakening.

Each of those things are treasured experiences — but none of them are intended to sustain our joy.

Jesus’ chose 72 of his followers and sent them out in his name. And they found incredible success in healing the sick and in watching demonically sabotaged lives get radically and immediately repaired. The experience must have been intoxicatingly fun.

But ministry success wasn't the most stunning thing, and Jesus warned his followers of that when they returned. He told them to look beyond the fruit and see an eternal foundation: "do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20).

Written in heaven. That’s what he wanted them to see and us to see. Our highest joy is to know that our names are written in heaven. Knowing we are heirs to the bliss of God's eternal presence is the foundation for our greatest joys.   Continue at Tony Reinke

Christian Image Is Everything

Image is everything in modern culture. Take for instance the shopping mall. More than showcasing merchandise, malls resemble ancient temples or medieval cathedrals---places of worship where the spirit is lifted. Along with designer jeans and exotic coffees, you can fashion for yourself an improved image, one in which people take pride.

Concern for image sometimes reveals itself in ways that are less than subtle. Consider, for instance, the following personal ad from New York magazine:

Strikingly Beautiful: Ivy League graduate. Playful, passionate, perceptive, elegant, bright, articulate, original in mind, unique in spirit. I possess a rare balance of beauty and depth, sophistication and earthiness, seriousness and a love of fun. Professionally successful, perfectly capable of being self-sufficient and independent, but I won't be truly content until we find each other. . . . Please reply with a substantial letter describing your background and who you are. Photo essential.

Over and against such blatant hubris, there is a concern for image that is not only acceptable, it is actually basic to our Christian identity and calling. The apostle Paul says, "Christ is the visible image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15). To properly understand what this means, we must consider God's original creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden---the place where image projection started.  Continue at Gospel Coalition

How to Shrink Your Church

Pastors and churches spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year attending conferences, buying books, hiring consultants, advertisers and marketers, all to try and accomplish one thing: to increase attendance -- to be a bigger church.

I'm absolutely convinced this is the wrong tack.

Success is a slippery subject when it comes to the Church. That our ultimate picture of success is a crucified Messiah means any conversation about success will be incompatible with a "bigger is better" mentality. Yet, bigger and better is exactly what most churches seem to be pursuing these days: a pursuit which typically comes in the form of sentimentality and pragmatism.

Sentimentality and pragmatism are the one-two punch which has the American Church on the ropes, while a generation of church leaders acquiesces to the demands of our consumer culture. The demands are simple: tell me something that will make me feel better (sentimentality for the churchgoer), and tell me something that will work (pragmatism for the church leader). Yet it is not clear how either one of those are part of what it means to be the church.

Sentimentality is mother's milk to the church which has ceased to believe our faith should really make a difference in the way we live our lives. Instead of proclaiming resurrection, the sentimental church will devote their entire Sunday worship service to Mother's/Father's Day -- or worse yet, Valentine's Day. Not that we don't appreciate our parents and sweethearts, but the yielding of precious worship time to the celebration of greeting card companies signals a much deeper problem: we have lost track of the story of God. Yet, for a church to grow bigger, losing track of the story is precisely what is required.  Read the rest HERE

IMAGE

Evangelicalism’s Got Talent

A few weeks ago I posted some concerns (you can read them here) about various subtle—and I believe threatening—trends in preaching today. One respondent gently took exception and expressed concern that I might’ve over-generalized in making my case. While a full treatment of this subject is thicker than the limits of typical blog-posts, I promised a more extensive look at the matter.

Recently I listened to a panel discussion of well-known pastors discussing the merits, if any, of establishing new churches whose primary shepherd/preacher is heard and known only by live-streaming video. Those in favor offered two main reasons: (1) It works! Patently faster than other numerically-driven approaches, the live-stream messages of admired preachers draws more people from, well, wherever they were before; (2) Only some men have the kind of giftedness to “bring it powerfully” in the pulpit, and so we should maximize their outreach potential through technology.

Now, aside from what I think are grave errors with that particular approach to feeding the flock (which weren’t addressed in the panel discussion, but that’s for another post), two issues cause me to think that evangelicalism is being duped when it comes to how we evaluate effective ministries and preaching. We make wrong assumptions about “giftedness” and this leads to an errant view of expository preaching. This post will simply focus on the first of those points.   Keep Reading ...

The Futility of Control and Your Reason to Rest

As a pastor, I learned the hard way that my ministry was either propelled by hope-motivating rest in God’s sovereignty or fear-inducing belief that success would be the result of me controlling everything. In my early morning waking moments, in those quiet moments in the car or as my body gave way to sleep, I would pepper myself with a long list of “what ifs” and “if onlys.” This habit never produced greater courage or rest. It only tempted me to wonder if I had what it takes and pushed me to try to control things that I could not control. But over and over again in grace my heavenly Father came to me through his Word and the ministry of others and remind me of the only place rest could be found.

I did the same thing again and again when our children resisted our instruction and correction. I did it again and again when they debated a command or questioned our plans. I did it again and again when they opposed our authority and quested for self-rule. I did it again and again for two good reasons.

To begin with, my wife and I brought children into this world who thought they didn’t need us! Each of them at some point fell into believing they were far more knowledgeable and capable than they really were. They all assumed that their intentions were noble and their plans sound. They all thought they were capable of determining what was best, even when they lacked important information and experience. They simply felt they were in possession of a better way.   Keep Reading...

Numbers, Faithfulness, or People?

Perhaps one of the most important things to settle in ministry and as a church is how to define “success.”  Without question, we all have some notion of what constitutes “success.”  And whether it’s explicit or implicit, whether it’s written down or unspoken, our notion of success drives our behavior and our self evaluation.

Very often churches and church leaders define their “success” in terms of numbers.  Some defend measurement as an acceptable approach to gauging progress and effectiveness.  They speak of the number of baptisms or converts, church attendance and budgets, and other numerical assessments as shorthand for “success.”  Others reduce “success” to one factor: faithfulness.  ”Whether the numbers change or not,” this group tells us, “is not the issue.  The issue is whether a leader and church have been true to God’s design and intent.” Keep Reading...

Redefining Success in Ministry