So where do you land? Are we shooting for faithfulness or success? More importantly, where does God land?
Okay, I can’t claim to speak for God. He’s fully able to speak for himself. On the other hand, he has spoken in Scripture. I think particularly of the OT prophets. They seem to be the epitome of the faithful and ultimately unsuccessful ministers. How did God feel about them? Well, actually, it was his idea in the first place. Consider his call to Isaiah:
God: Who will go for us?
Isaiah: Here I am, send me.
God: Okay, go preach. Preach and expose the stubbornness of these people.
(Isaiah thinks, “Uh, I’m not sure this is what I signed up for…)
Isaiah: How long, Lord?
God: Until cities lie devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate.
And that is what Isaiah did. He preached faithfully for years and years, and just as God had foretold, the people didn’t listen. Success, in any tangible sense, was not even in the picture. Jeremiah, similarly, became excessively bitter because of the lack of “success,” and he let God know about it. But he too remained faithful. The prophets spent their lives trying to fulfill their commission. Success was not the measure of God’s pleasure with them. Perhaps it’s not with us either.
3 comments:
Ah yes, the good old prophets. Every time they preach the truth they loose church members.
But somehow, we have to put with that story the expectations of Jesus for his disciples in Matthew 10. If someone is not receptive they are to shake the dust off of their feet and move on. Paul wanted to go to and stay in places where there were good opportunities. Somehow numbers don't matter, but somehow they do.
Another thing that challenges me is whether we should emphasize stepping out on faith, or counting the cost of what we do. We have the example of Peter getting out of the boat, and of Abraham who just picked up and moved to a foreign place, not knowing what to expect. We have foolish servants who bury their talent in the ground while good and faithful servants take risks and end up with profits.
Then we have parables about stupid men who don't anticipate how much a building will cost, then they fail to complete it (which seems, in context, to be a bad thing in Jesus' eyes). How much do I need to just act on faith, not worrying about what I'm biting into, and how much do I need to look before I leap?
You bring up one of those subjects in scripture where both sides of the argument have large quantities of proof texts for whatever agenda an individual is trying to push.
Oh, and I almost forgot my other favorite back-to-back seemingly contradictory instructions in Proverbs 24:4-5: "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes."
It's the passages like these that challenge me to accept that the Bible is what it is; but it's not always necessarily what I want it to be. It sure can leave some uncomfortable gray areas from time to time.
I've found that in the subject you bring up, people tend to answer it based on their own ministry experiences. Someone who has worked in a large healthy church will insist numbers are important. Someone who has been a missionary in an unreceptive country where their passionate efforts make no visible difference will insist that "success" is more about being true to your message more than actually reaching anybody.
Now I've written a response as long as your post, and I've basically made no progress in this dilemma. It's a tough one, isn't it?
Nice to see you back in the realm of blogging, by the way. :-)
God's definition of success is different than man's. If we measure our ministry by numbers or popularity we may even totally lose sight of God and miss the whole point. If we measure success by God's standard of success (which certainly includes faithfulness) then ultimately everything will be fine.
I believe the prophets were successful. They were successful because they did what God asked. Maybe the distinction is more like should we be faithful or popular. Jesus seems to indicate that most people will not go along with the gospel. That makes us the minority with an unpopular and "unsuccessful" (in human eyes) ministry.
Where is Danny?
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