What is your definition of Church Success?

Hi All,

How you define success as a church affects almost everything you do, so you need to make sure your get it right. Get it wrong, and you will be leaning your proverbial ladder up against the wrong wall. Get it right, and you can make a difference for eternity in the lives of many, and earn yourself a "Well done, good and faithful servant" from the Lord.

I'm going to cut to the chase and give you this definition as revealed in "Entrepreneurial Faith". The full name of the book is: "Entrepreneurial Faith: Launching Bold Initiatives to Expand God's Kingdom" by Walt Kallestad, Kirbyjon Caldwell, and Paul Sorensen. It's a great book; maybe I'll do a review soon. But for now, I just want you to see this definition of church success from them (in my own words as a formula): "Success = Obedience + Faith.

OBEDIENCE: Jesus told the story (Matthew 21) of the father who asked each of his sons to do something. The first son said "I will not" but then later on changed his mind and went to work in the vineyard as asked. The second son said "Yes" right away when asked, but then never did go work in the vineyard. Question asked by Jesus, "Who obeyed his father?" Summary: Obedience is key to church success, and life success. If you do not obey, nothing else matters.

But here is where we part with the clan of Christians who believe that obedience is enough. They couch it in pious terms like, "Jesus didn't call us to be successful, just faithful." And by 'faithful' they mean obedient at best, and at worst, if we just go through the motions of doing what God has called us to do then that is all He asks of us.

But this sort of mentality forgets other important verses, like the parable of the talents, in which the master was not content that his servants took care of what was his and just kept their nose clean. He was looking for a profit, for a benefit, for a result from the talents he entrusted to his servants. Those servants were expected by him to go out and invest and risk and try to do something with the vast sums of money to which they were entrusted. They were required to walk by faith and make something happen. That is, obedience alone was not sufficient; he was expecting some initiative and some valour and some courage to make a difference. Obedience for the sake of the status quo would not be enough. They were expected to exercise FAITH.

FAITH: Obedience is needed, but not only obedience. And faith is needed, but not only faith. We need them both. "Obedience puts faith into action" is one of the statements that Caldwell and Kallestad make in their book. James said "Faith without works is dead."

Why are these both needed? Because faith is what energizes all of our obedience with spiritual power. If we just dully obey God without any faith, we are like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son, who dutifully obeyed his father by working in the fields as he should, and yet he had no love, no joy, no sense of life. The prodigal son at least sinned boldly and learned his lesson. The elder brother was just as miserable in a long-term chronic way.

Put them both together, friends: Obedience + Faith, and you've got a winning combination for Christian success and church success. BTW, if you want to buy the book you can get it in the HighPower Books section here. It's on page two of the "Church Growth" section.

That's what I've learned this week, and it's making me think.

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Dr. Bill