I got an interesting email question today and thought I’d share it and my answer to it.
Hey, Scott…hope all is well!
Do you mind if I pick your brain a bit today? Today, I was reading a blog and they referenced a blog post from someone I had never read before now. The post was intriguing because it proposed a new definition of “success” in the local church. Here’s the post…
http://www.backyardmissionary.com/2008/06/re-imagining-success.html
From W.David Phillips:
“At my last doctoral class with Len Sweet last week, he posed a question to us that went something like this: Provide for me the metaphors that will describe how we measure success in the church in the future. We are prone to measure success by how many and how much. And we determine who is a great leader by how many and how much.
So today, I want to share with you some of the metaphors we listed (and some I came up with afterwards), of things we can count as a measure of success. But I need to issue a warning. You will have to think about these and you may push back unless you realize the metaphor. So don’t react…Ponder…
1. The number of cigarette butts in the church parking lot.
2. The number of adoptions people in the church have made from local foster care.
3. The number of pictures on the church wall of unwed mothers holding their newborn babies in their arms for the first time.
4. The number of classes for special needs children and adults
5. The number of former convicted felons serving in the church
6. The number of phone calls from community leaders asking the church’s advice
7. The number of meetings that take place somewhere besides the church building
8. The number of organizations using the church building
9. The number of days the pastor doesn’t spend time in the church office but in the community
10. The number of emergency finance meetings that take place to reroute money to community ministry
11. The amount of dollars saved by the local schools because the church has painted the walls
12. The number of people serving in the community during the church’s normal worship hours
13. The number of non-religious-school professors worshiping with you
14. The number of people wearing good, free clothes that used to belong to members of the church
15. The number of times the church band has played family-friendly music in the local coffee shop
16. The number of people who have gotten better because of free health clinic you operate
17. The number of people in new jobs thanks to the free job training center you opened
18. The number of micro-loans given by members in your church
19. The number of churches your church planted in a 10 mile radius of your own church
Got any more?”
This might be a broad/big question but thanks for passing on your perspective!
…thanks!
My reply…….
Hey brother
Sorry it took so long to get back to ya…. busy day.
I can certainly play that game…. add some to it….
1. By the number of tattoos attending.
2. By the number of biker helmets in the parking lot with stickers that have profanity on them.
3. By…..
I certainly get the point. Are we reaching those that are far from God? I know that there is an understanding now that people are …on a given spectrum, farther away from God than 50 years ago…and most traditional churches don’t get it. For example….In 1950 you might say someone far from God was a -1 on a given scale with “0″ being the point of salvation. With that being the case, evangelism looked like: “if you died tonight do you know if you’d make it to heaven?” The “-1″ person would answer a few questions and ….pow…. they were at “0″ and were saved. Now they say …. folks are at “-9″ on the same spectrum and “old” ways of evangelism ” no longer work. We need to develop relationships with folks and meet them where they are…. thus, we have new “success” being determined by the beginning of of relationship (number of cigarets in the parking lot) with people far from God. When you determine success in this way it means that you get “it” among the postmoderns.
The problems I have with either the “old” or “new” ways are this:
The sweeping assumptions that people who smoke are “far from God” ….. and…. that if you can snag a bunch of them to come to your church you “must be doing something right”. There are so many things wrong with this generalization I don’t even know where to start. First of all…. what if it’s true that “like attracts like” and people are coming because YOU are actually far from God. Next, what if your assumption about “what is far from God” is wrong. Take Mormons, they don’t DO many things like smoking, tattoos, or even drinking carbonated beverages… yet they are far from God. If you had a boat load of Mormons in the church wanting to know more about God… none of the new “success meters” would be lighting up. And… what if the clean cut, wealthy, white, married, hard working people really, really, really, needed God…. the “new” success meters don’t light up when the saving power of God enters their life. The “new measures of success” have good intentions I know, but without the presuppositions clearly stated they are naive and shallow at best and dangerous at worst. ON the surface they sound great but are just like the measurements used by traditional churches…” How many baptisms?, How many on high attendance Sunday….?” Both approaches are great. Both in their purest form are at the heart of God… But…
If the blogger means that, by having a large number of cigaret butts in the parking lot, the holy spirit is bringing life change to broken lives … then YES, I agree that is a success.
If the more traditional churches mean, by having a goal to baptize 100 people this year, that discipleship follows and the holy spirit brings life change to broken lives… then YES, I agree that is a success.
WellSpring’s success is determined by lives that move through a discipleship process….Love God, Encourage Family, Serve Other, and Seek the Lost. We gauge success by a movement of people from one step to the next. We celebrate each step of each person … regardless of their socioeconomic / behavioral status. From the conversation in the coffee shop to their first visit. From their first time at family group to their baptism. From their baptism to their going on a community project. From inviting a trusted friend to church with them to watching them watch their friend follow the same process. WE LOVE EVERY STEP!
All that to say…
As long as the presupposition is that life change will happen, that people move closer to God through Jesus Christ, and that God gets all the glory…. then yes, I dig these “new” and “old” measurements of success!
In His Grip,
Scott McInis
Lead Pastor, WellSpring church.
I Pray that we never put success indicators before people!
