“How do we live a life of (un)successful significance rather than meaningless influence?”
– Pete Portal
The latest BARNA research has made the bold statement that “Americans are slowly edging away from Christianity.” Barna notes that, “Christian Identity is on the decline,” and “so is the importance of religious faith.” Adding to the sadness of the latest “State of the Church” report is the fact that, “The biggest shift in religion is the percentage of people opting out altogether.”
Leaders in the church are having to contend with these realities without getting downright depressed, believing that our hard work and exhausting pursuits in our ministerial calling seem to be going nowhere. Every time I look at this data and the research that consistently offers a reality check about the Christian church of the past and the Christian church of today, I too want to crawl under a rock and let God take care of the sinking ship of mainline Protestant Christianity. It would take a God-size miracle to prevent this Titanic from hitting the worldly iceberg that is before us at this moment in time. That is, when we continue to use the world’s definitions of success versus God’s definition of success.
Pete Portal is a pastor who was called to serve in the Manenberg Township in Cape Town, South Africa. His book, “How to Be (Un)Successful,” chronicles his waning “success” as a missionary pastor in one of the most dangerous, gang-infested communities in Cape Town. Like most pastors, his efforts and evaluations focused on what denominational bodies lauded as success: conversions to Christianity, number of people attending worship, and the hope for transformation of gang members to faithful, law-abiding Christians. Needless to say, he was “successful” at beating himself up and living in a depressive state of remorse, believing that he had failed at what God had called him to do.
This is not new for pastors and ministry leaders, who live day in and day out with the pressures of figuring out how to appease the denominational structures, the cultural expectations of success, and their own interpretations of what ministry success is supposed to look like. And yet, we still hang on. Portal points to many theologians who have tried to help ministry leaders stay focused on the “right things” in ministry rather than getting bogged down by the influences of the world.
Portal then turns a corner and points to when his wife reminded him how they have been 100% “successful” in being faithful to God’s call upon their lives. She told him that they were called to open their home and welcome anyone who enters. And they have done that, and done it well. For over 15 years, they have opened their home and invited people in, for a moment or for weeks or months, whatever the need may be – they have been faithful. Meeting people where they are, allowing them to be themselves, and opening their eyes to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives has been their faithful response. It wasn’t their job to “fix” this person or that person, it was their job to be faithful to God’s call.
In Galatians 6:9 (NIV) Paul encourages the Galatians to stay the course in their new life as followers of Christ, saying, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Doing good and being successful is responding faithfully to the call that God has put on our lives. May we not grow weary!
In your ministry context…
- How has your faith community been measuring success?
- Has this been helpful or harmful to the community’s pursuit of God’s calling?
- What would it look like for your community to measure faithfulness?
- What is the point of “measuring success?” How does it further God’s calling?
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