What makes a church successful? Who or how do you define success? As we quickly approach our 2-year anniversary I fined myself asking these very questions. Should we ask such questions or should we sit humbly as God continues to bless His creation.

The Dictionary defines success as: The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted; The gaining of fame or prosperity.

How do you define success in the church? Can you? As I have thought about it and prayed, I believe the better question would be, if I feel I am successful in life I probably have already failed. Not because of what was achieved but because of how I perceived and measured the success. We need to be in God’s Will, following His plan of success. I assure you this, it looks nothing like the success we usually look for.

If I am trying to achieve success in the church, how will I evaluate and measure it? Is it by the number of new people that come to church or the amount of people that dedicate their lives during Sunday service? Are these in themselves the true Godly indicators of His success and ours? It really doesn’t matter how we look at success if it is outside of God’s desire and plan.

As we discussed during Sunday morning service (Sep 30), the greatest obstacle we have in this world (other than ourselves) is other people. They get in the way, cast doubts and challenge our foolish beliefs. The next thing you know we are sitting quietly on the sideline going with the flow. In other words taking the path of least resistance.

Let me surmise. Over the last two years I have read well into the 30’s books about life, Christ, church, history and relationships. And yet I see (worldly view) much of life is about trying to please other people. Note how I did not say God. We Christians all would like to please God, yet we put all our efforts into trying to please people. Get it? It is in the application of trying that we tend to spend our time and resources on.

Why rather people than God? It’s rather simple; we can see the results of our efforts that way. We can even feel a sense of accomplishment (see what I’ve done). Taking the glory and praises from others for the great sacrifices we made to make the church successful. Heaven forbid we give the attention and glory to God alone!

As we try to please people we create a church of critics. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters, “Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.
….the search for a ‘suitable’ church makes the man a critic where the Enemy wants him to be a pupil.”

We become creative on our approaches. We purchase mailing, invent special days and programs that give us a reason to invite friends and family. Is this why we invite people to church, so we can entertain and win them over. Why can’t we just like our faith out loud and trust in God’s perfect timing.

I do not write this as a dart, but as a conscious fallen man with weaknesses and fears just like you.

All I can do is write, think and pray out load that you and my Lord can see my desire to be transparent with all my thoughts.

My closing thought, and we wonder why only 10 percent of the church body is actively involved in ministry!

Happy Anniversary to my Lord and Savior

God Bless

Pastor Larry