What Is “Success” For A Church?

May 11, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

“How’s it going,” a fellow pastor asked me. “How’s your church doing?”

If you’re a pastor, you probably get asked this often. How do you answer this question? Do you tell them what your attendance was on Sunday morning? Or about the newest program you’ve started?

When you look in the mirror and ask yourself, “How’s it going,” is your answer related to nickels and noses (offerings and attendance)? Is it how many people complimented your last sermon?

Listen to these sobering words:

Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. 

…We have a commercialized view—we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. (Oswald Chambers)

We need to be very careful about how we define “success” in a church setting. Let’s use Jesus as our example:

  • How big was His congregation? Twelve men. One betrayed Him, nine ran away when the going got tough, and one denied he even knew Him. Even after being raised from the dead (!) there were only 120 people in the upper room.
  • How much money did His church have? Not even enough to buy a gravesite for the Messiah.
  • What did people think of His sermons? Some of His sermons made people so mad they wanted to stone Him. And after one sermon the Bible says: From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him (John 6:66).

Maybe “success” in the church is more like…

  • …people being reconciled to God. Remembering that “our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them” (Chambers).
  • …seeing disengaged people becoming actively involved in engaging others with the Gospel.
  • …“Never seek[ing] after anything other than the approval of God” (Chambers).
  • …to say with Jesus, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

These are just some of my thoughts. What else should be on this list? How would you define “success” in the church?

I have also shared some questions that can help pastors and ministry leaders better gauge the level of effectiveness in their ministry.

UPDATE: This post was one of the seed thoughts that went into fashioning my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter.

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Co-Workers

May 4, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Obvious statement #1: Church ministry is not lone ranger work.

I needed to state that not only as a reminder to myself, but to my other pastor friends too. It seems like we can often lose sight of this fact. We can become so focused on the next sermon, the next appointment, the next Board meeting, the next outreach that we are actually worshiping the ministry instead of worshiping God through our ministry.

Oswald Chambers gave this warning:

“Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work. The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God. … A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work. … Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated. There is no freedom and no delight in life at all. His nerves, mind, and heart are so overwhelmed that God’s blessing cannot rest on him.”

When we are more focused on the work than on God, we can easily begin to feel over-worked and under-appreciated. And this usually leads to us either bearing down to work harder or to simply throwing in the towel.

There is a healthy alternative: link arms with The Co-Worker—

“Walk with me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:29, The Message)

Link with The Co-Worker, and then you will do ministry out of the overflow of your personal worship. Remember, you are a co-worker, not a solo-worker.

Obvious statement #2: Church ministry is not just for the pastor.

Church member, you too are a co-worker with Christ. And with your pastor.

The apostle Paul reminded the church at Corinth that “we are God’s fellow workers” (1 Corinthians 3:9). In other words, we’re all in this together. You need your pastor, and your pastor needs you.

Allow me to paraphrase a quote from President Dwight Eisenhower:

“Never let yourself be persuaded that one [pastor] is necessary to the salvation of America. When [the Church] consists of one leader and [a bunch of] followers, it will no longer be [the Church].”

The Church is a beautiful thing! It functions best when:

  • Pastor and church member are both linked with Christ
  • The pastor is not a lone ranger
  • The church members are not spectators

Ready? Go BE the Church of Jesus Christ!

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Dealing With Anonymous

April 27, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

I have never met Mr. Anonymous, but I sure would like to!

It appears to me that Mr. Anonymous is one of the wisest people in the world. He has an expert opinion about everything. And apparently he’s never wrong and never at fault for anything.

Have you ever received a letter or an email from Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous?

How do you respond when you get one of these letters? Does it make you angry? Defensive? Depressed? Do you feel like you need to defend yourself against this so-called expert?

Personally, I think Mr. Anonymous is a coward, so I choose not to respond to anything that he says. Although that’s easy to say because I don’t even know who he is! So even if I did have something to say I would have no one to say it to.

Anyway you look at it, it’s frustrating!!

Here’s how King Hezekiah in the Bible chose to respond to a letter. Although the letter was not anonymous, the principle is still very good for us today:

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord, and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to the words [he] has sent to insult the living God.” (2 Kings 19:14-16)

God knows who Mr. Anonymous is! And He is the only one who can justify you in Mr. Anonymous’ eyes.

So the next time you receive a letter from Mr. Anonymous, read it and allow God to show you anything in there that may be true. Then lay the letter before the Lord, and let God take it from there!

UPDATE: I discuss the bites of critics and criticism in my book When Sheep Bite.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Do You Know Your Community?

April 20, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Jesus called His followers to be salt and light. It’s pretty easy to figure out that the salt cannot season the food if it stays in the saltshaker, and the light cannot illuminate the darkness if it stays covered up. In order to season and shine in your community, you have to know your community.

And, pastor, that starts with you.

What you do is a much more effective sermon that what you say. Pastor, you need to know your community, so that you can be involved in your community, so that you and your church can season and shine in your community together.

So let me ask a couple of questions:

  • Do you know your Mayor / City Manager / Township Supervisor? If you don’t know them, how can you affirm their leadership (Romans 13:1-7)?
  • Do you attend City / Township Council meetings? If you don’t, how will you know what issues they’re wrestling with? If you don’t know those issues, how can you pray effectively for them (1 Timothy 2:1-2)?
  • Are you involved in your community? Don’t just assume people in your community will come to your church to sit among stranger to hear a stranger speak; instead, be so involved in your community that they will come to church to fellowship with friends and hear a friend speak (John 2:1-2).

I opened with the question, “Do you know your community?” But maybe a better way to ask this is, “Does your community know you?”

Does the community come to you to ask for help? This may be the best barometer of your involvement in your community: how often they seek your help or assistance in addressing issues within your community.

If you’re not as involved as you should be, the good news is that it’s never too late to start! Go get involved—go season and shine!

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Harmless

April 13, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

When a story from the past is so well known, we can easily insert ourselves into it with a certain bias. When we do this, we read things into the story because of the facts we know now.

For instance, we know Judas betrays Jesus. So when we see his name in any story in the Bible, we immediately associate the word traitor with him, and we can only view him through that lens. Therefore, it’s easy for us to put ourselves in the place of one of the other eleven disciples of Jesus, and assume that they too knew Judas was a traitor.

Except they didn’t.

Look at this verse after Jesus says, “One of you will betray Me”—

His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them He meant. (John 13:22)

The Eleven were not suspicious of Judas. They didn’t say, “Well, I just knew it was him,” or “I kinda expected that from Judas.”

One of the things Jesus taught His followers was for them to be gentle as doves. I like how the King James Version says it: harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16).

Pastor, I know you especially have been hurt by people in your church. They have betrayed you, gossiped about you, turned on you. If people did that to Jesus, why would you expect anything less? And yet we are still to remain harmless as doves.

The Eleven never suspected a traitor. They were innocent. I think they were so focused on Jesus, they didn’t have time to be cynical about others. We view Judas cynically; they didn’t.

What a testimony to others when we are harmless:

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and depraved nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2:15)

You may have been hurt many (many, many, many…) times in the past. But being harmless means that, like the disciples, we are “at a loss” as to whom it could be when someone tells us there is a traitor in our midst.

  • Stay focused on Jesus, so you may love others as He loves them.
  • Allow God to heal the wounds others have inflicted on you.
  • Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any cynicism in your heart.
  • Repent of your suspicion of people.
  • Be harmless toward everyone.
  • Grieve over the traitor.
  • Then stay focused on Jesus, not the traitor and not your wound.
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What’s Your Point?

March 23, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

As I am preparing my message for each Sunday, I have one point that I want everyone to have clear in their hearts and minds when they leave. It’s sort of my “finish line.” I say, “If they get only one thing from this message, what should it be?” This is the part where I spend quite a bit of time.

Then I read this from the Apostle Paul:

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:1-2)

So what’s my point?

Something clever and witty?

Something that shows how eloquent I am?

Perhaps another rule to follow?

Or another application to make?

Oswald Chambers says, “To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ….” (emphasis mine)

My point should be only this:

To help people see Jesus more clearly.

Anything less than this is to miss the point.

Anything more than this is attempting to make myself sound eloquent.

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Pet (Pastoral) Peeve

March 16, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing pastors say, “Ministry would be great if it weren’t for the people.”

Pastor: People ARE your ministry!

After Christ’s resurrection, He wanted to help restore Peter. Jesus asked Peter a simple question, “Do you love Me?” When Peter acknowledged that he did, Jesus gave Peter a way to show it: “Feed My sheep.” I believe this exchange is what Peter had in mind when he penned the words,

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:2-3)

Is it hard to be a shepherd? Yes.

Are some sheep difficult to shepherd? Yes.

Is it worth it to shepherd them? Yes, yes, YES!!

I love Oswald Chambers’ insight on this:

“Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions—I have to feed His sheep.”

Jesus, increase my capacity to love Your sheep. All of Your sheep—the ones that bite; the ones that are nice; the ones that are untidy; the ones that are clean; the ones that are thankful; the ones that are ungrateful; the ones that “get it”; the ones that don’t. All of YOUR sheep. Thank You, Lord, for the supreme honor and heavy responsibility of serving as Your under-shepherd.

UPDATE: This idea of pastors as shepherds is what drove me to write my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter. I hope you will pick up a copy today!

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Who Are You?

March 9, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

This is another post especially for pastors (but I think others will find this helpful too).

John the Baptizer had no credentials, and yet people flocked to hear him speak.

He had no formal training, and yet people hung on his every word.

He had no authority from a sanctioning body, and yet he spoke with such power.

This perplexed the religious leadership. After all, they had credentials, training, and authority. So they came to John asking, “Who are you? What do you have to say about yourself?” (John 1:21-22).

If God has called you to the pastorate, He will equip you.

There’s nothing wrong with credentials, training, or sanctioning, per se. But when you think your call to preach has authority because of your title, your training, or your denominational appointment, you have missed the point! John had none of these, and yet Jesus said, “There’s never been a greater prophetic voice!”

So, pastor, who are you?

Are you the one who is credentialed, or trained, or sanctioned?

Or are you the one who has been called and equipped by God?

There’s a huge difference!

Who are you? I hope you can answer, “I am only a servant of the Most High, equipped by the Holy Spirit to make Jesus known in my city.”

UPDATE: I use John the Baptist as a prominent example in my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter.

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Preparing The Preacher

March 2, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

A friend of mine was preparing to preach his first sermon at a new church, and he was (as anyone might understand) nervous. He had all sorts of concerns: Is this the right word for this congregation? Will my thoughts make sense to them? Have I prepared enough for this message?

It was that last question that jogged my memory of a quote I had read from Oswald Chambers in his book Approved Unto God. The title of that book comes from a passage a Scripture in which preachers are told to correctly handle the Word of God as a worker that is approved unto God (2 Timothy 2:15).

Check out this pearl of wisdom:

“Keep yourself full to the brim in reading; but remember that the first great Resource is the Holy Spirit Who lays at your disposal the Word of God. The thing to prepare is not the sermon, but the preacher.” —Oswald Chambers (my emphasis)

God doesn’t need His Word prepared—it’s already perfect. But He does need to prepare me to deliver the message. He needs to remove my opinions, my preconceived ideas, my hang-ups with that particular passage, my hesitation to share it.

The Holy Spirit of God needs to prepare me. And I need to let Him do it.

It’s a heavy, awesome responsibility to be “the one” sharing God’s Word to a group of precious people. I dare not even attempt it unless I have let the Spirit prepare me first.

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Life In What You Have

February 24, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Pastors, these two quotes from Charles Spurgeon have really been working on me. This is not intended to be a pastor-bashing message. Instead, it’s more of a wake-up call.

“We too often flog the church when the whip should be laid on our own shoulders. We should always remember that we are a part of the church, and that our own lack of revival is in some measure the cause of the lack of revival in the church at large. I will lay the charge before us; we ministers need a revival of piety in our lives.”

“You don’t need a new preacher, another kind of worship, another type of preaching, new ways of doing things or even new people. You need life in what you have.”

If I’m going to pray, “Start a revival, Lord,” the prayer needs to begin with, “Start it with me!”

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