Gospel as Affirmation of Success

Posted by admin on May 20, 2010 in Church, Featured, Gospel, Leadership | 5 comments

I have been trying for the last three years to figure out whether what we are doing with the Bridge Church in Oxford is successful or not. Many people who look at the church and read the stats would say that we are successful. We have survived the first year, we survived the second year, and we have survived even a third year. That alone is pretty astounding.

I remember sitting in one of my first meetings with other church planters when they were attempting to train us how to do this thing. They taught us how to plan, how to go door to door, how to plan for finances and fundraise, and then they told us most of us would not make it past the second year.

I was shocked. I already do not like being in meetings, especially with a bunch of Christians, so I was not too pleased. I remember thinking, “you bring us here for 2 days, fill up our minds with all they ways that we are going to change the world by starting a church, then at the last minute you tell us that most of us will not make it past the second year.”  Well if you didn’t notice from my previous post I am pretty stubborn. The last thing I want someone to tell me is that I cannot do something. As soon as I hear those words it becomes a personal challenge for me to prove them wrong.

I spent the rest of my planning time trying to figure out the first 2 years and then I would have surpassed what they were saying I could.

Well we made it past those first two years. As a matter of fact that first year we became somewhat of a celebrity in the Ohio Church planting world. We were featured by the North American Mission Board in almost every state convention that year, we shared at the annual Southern Baptist meeting in Ohio that year, and we were even considered “cutting edge.”

The only problem was that after each event that I went to representing The Bridge I would come back home to Oxford. And here I would be faced with the reality that we were far from celebrity. Many people in our own community didn’t even know we existed. There were so many people that we still were not reaching and had no idea how to reach.

We stressed over money, planning, and personnel. In that first year alone we lost one team member and 2 worship leaders. Things were not easy. I had no idea if we would actually make it to that second year, I didn’t know if I wanted to make it to that second year.

But we were everyone’s poster child of church planting, we had to keep going or else we would disappoint so many people.

In my opinion as a church planter we so often identify who we are based on what others are saying about us. We live and die with the comments other pastors and other leaders make. We beg for approval and for endorsement for many reasons. One, we want to make sure we are not crazy (which most of us are) and two, we want to know that someone is in our corner fighting with us not against us.

If we were honest I think we would say that it feels like we are constantly in battles in our communities, whether it is for space, for people, or drama caused by church members (or non church members for that fact), so we look for affirmation from others just to try to see if what we are doing is actually legit.

After three years I would still not say that we are a successful church plant. Because I do not know that you or I can identify success on a standard that actually matters. At the end of the day the only thing we can do is to ask ourselves: Are we growing closer to God? Are we sharing the Gospel daily? Are we concerned with the lostness in our community? Are we making disciples?

A few weeks ago I attended Together For The Gospel, a conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The last speaker was C.J. Mahaney, I remember his words like I was still sitting in that audience. “Some pastors are remarkable gifts to the church, with massive intellects and unusual insights, but most of us are ordinary pastors with ordinary gifts & ordinary areas of spheres and abilities to serve. We’re consistently preaching average sermons Sunday after Sunday, without writing best selling books or having thousands downloading our sermons from around the world or being recognized as we walk down the street. All of us are called and gifted, but not unusually so. But ordinary pastors are predictably tempted to unfavorably compare themselves to these unusual men, and become discouraged. Too often ordinary pastors are discouraged pastors.”

“We are called to relentless faithfulness, today, tomorrow, every day, for all your life.

One of the hardest and most crucial tasks for any ministry is just to keep doing the same things year after year, instead of being distracted by doing “new” or “better” things.”- C.J. Mahaney.

I think the only way to define success is to ask the question are we still being faithful to the gospel everyday? If that is the case then we are bringing glory to God, and therefore bringing about the Kingdom.

The hardest thing for a church planter is to fight alone in this world. So we look for the accolades and the attention and affirmation of others, forgetting that we are not fighting alone, but we are fighting a war that is beyond ourselves, and in that war we are united with all church planters and pastors, and believers who are actively living out the Great Commission. Let the gospel be your affirmation and your foundation.