What is Success in Ministry?
The best book that I've read this semester is Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, by Kent and Barbara Hughes, Tyndale House: Wheaton, Ill, 1987. Here is a little review:
In the world of full-time ministry, pressure is constantly applied to the pastor to “succeed.” Where does this pressure come from? The pressure that the pastor feels may come from his own expectations, as well as expectations from his peers, predecessors, and even his own church family and staff. Unfortunately, this pressure can lead to pastoral stress, burnout, and even premature retirement. Kent and Barbara Hughes’ work, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, is a refreshing read for any person who is involved in full-time ministry who has suffered from the expectations of being successful.
The first part of the book recounts the Hughes’ own struggle of trying to live up to their own expectations. Kent Hughes tells of his early life as a pastor where he was motivated and ready to win the world for Jesus. But after a few years at a small church plant, Hughes felt that he had become a failure. Why had he become so despondent and convinced of this fact? He had become depressed because Hughes, like many pastors and churches, defined success in terms of numbers. If one has a church with less then one hundred members, then obviously the pastor is not a man of God and that God is not blessing the congregation. However, a church with thousands of members is obviously being blessed by God and the pastor is living in the center of God’s will. Thankfully, throughout the rest of the book Hughes dissects this theory and re-defines the notion of success.
After explaining how his wife helped him hang on by hanging on to her faith, Hughes then spends the rest of the book defining success and encouraging the reader. Hughes' main point in this book is that "success" is not defined by numbers, a growing church, or man's view of you. Success is defined as faithfulness to the call of God to preach and teach His word. After all, Isaiah was told by God that his audeince would dwindle and dwindle until there was nothing left but a stump. What was Isaiah's response? He was faithful, and thus successful in the eyes of God. I thank God for a book like this.
posted by Charlie Wallace at 7:39 PM
10 Comments:
Thanks for the suggestion Charlie. I might actually pick that one up. Artur and I were having an interesting discussion on the way we "do" church in the West. We were talking about the ideas of numbers and money. I think the conversation was headed toward calling the American church materialistic, but it never got that far. What do you think? Are we materialistic? I realize that this is a generalization and that there are exceptions.
I'm glad you're enjoying that book. It's on my assigned book list for internship, so I'm glad that you're enjoying it. I've only read the introduction so far, but it looks like it's great!
I think that some churches are, to a degree, materialistic. I think this is just a byproduct of the mega-church, numbers driven, method that uses the pastor as a CEO type of leader.
This is in stark contrast to true congregational polity where the pastor is not a CEO. He is a pastor. Ironically, most large congregational churches are not congregational at all. As Dr. Hammett points out in his book on Baptist distinctives, the pastor assumes a role that is more Episcopal in nature, meaning what the pastor says, goes. The church members really are not ruling the church.
Spending 3.5 million dollars on a new sound/visual system is materialistic, espeically when that money could have been used to plant a new church in a different part of the city and help fund it and the pastor that God has raised up. Or, the money could have been used to propagate the Gospel to a tribe or tongue that has never heard the name of Jesus.
Amen to that!
Well said. So Hammett would call most pastors bishops in reality? So, what does this mean for people like Johnny Hunt or Jerry Vines or David Jeremiah? What does it mean for Wake Crossroads since we are about to build a new building? By the way, maybe I'm being pessimistic, but I wouldn't say some American churches are materialistic. In fact, I would argue that it is a pervasive problem.
I got bored and found this interesting article.
http://www.forbes.com/2003/09/17/cz_lk_0917megachurch.html
What a shocler!!! Sweet Joel and the Reverend Dollar made into this article. It made me angry and sick.
Here is a quick sampling of some of the better quotes:
"In our society growth equals success," says Scott Thumma, faculty associate at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. "And religious growth not only equals success but also God's blessing on the ministry."
"The average net income of megachurches was estimated at $4.8 million by that same survey."
"One of the reasons megachurches are as big as they are is because they use the technology of today," says Kingdom Chief Executive Gene Jackson, "We can help smaller churches become big with technology."
This one is my favorite:
"As for the services themselves, Lakewood makes sure to put on a grand show. We really want it to feel like a concert," says Duncan Dodds, Lakewood's executive director.
I'm going to go throw up now.
Yes, Hammett does state that.
I think being the pastor of a megachurch is fine...if you make yourself held accountable to the church. However if you surround yourself with "yes men" then your church has lost its congregational roots.
That's a pretty troubling article. Unfortunately, success is seen in numbers just as egalitarians see leadership roles as equivelant to self worth. Uh oh! That's a whole 'nother topic.
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If you get a couple of minutes, check out this link to Redeemer Presbyterian Church's (NYC) vision for church planting. If you're like me, it will completely redirect your mind and heart with regards to ministry expansion and vision.
http://www.redeemer2.com/rcpc/rcpc/index.cfm?fuseaction=resources
I believe Charles is raising a good point about the materialistic interpretation. A CEO-like led mega-church is inherently theocratic; a fusion of two different purpose-driven organizations that would not, for example, have a service on a sunday because of what day of the week christmas falls on in a given year that would not optimize things in a worldly view. The church calendar is not anchored in many of these organizations -- perhaps a fluid thing.
It is difficult to peg exactly at what point in a large congregational setting that the pastor assumes that kind of authority, or if it is just a paralysis that develops over time.
Mega-churches seem to be operating more in the entertainment business as congregants become booking agents for a franchise that measure growth in only a few nominal ways.
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