What "Success" Isn't
Dr. Chuck Laird, Executive Director
Sanctuary Christian Ministries

What is SUCCESS for your church?

I have been the pastor of two "successful" churches and one "unsuccessful" church -- as those who hire and fire pastors in North America define success. Can you guess what that means?

If you could narrow all definitions and understandings of success into one word, it would be: GROWTH. More specifically, numerical growth.

Members take pride in numerically growing churches. It affirms their value. They feel attractive and wanted. When new people -- particularly young people -- flock to their church, there's a wonderful sense of excitement and satisfaction being a part of something special God is doing.

Numerically growing churches have more members, more people attending worship, more money, and see more people making decisions for Christ and getting baptized. These four -- growing membership, growing worship attendence, growing income, and growing decisions/baptisms -- are the central measurements of SUCCESS for a church.

These values are powerfully and systemically reinforced. Those pastors who can attract and retain the highest numbers (particularly those of middle to upper income) through their preaching and teaching are paid the highest salaries. The fastest-growing churches receive acclaim and recognition. Other pastors, churches, and consultants come study their methods and strategies in hopes of emulating their success. Books are written about them. The church and pastor are featured in newspaper and magazine articles, perhaps even on television.

This, in turn, further reinforces the image of success both in the church's self-perception and that of others, generating a quiet (okay, sometimes not-so-quiet) pride within and both admiration and envy from those of other, "less successful" churches that are not numerically growing.

More people coming to church. More money to support more programs leading, hopefully, to more decisions for Christ. Isn't that what you want for YOUR church? It is all so very attractive -- and seductive.

Here's the fallacy: North America is growing LESS Christian in its social fabric and cultural character. And, according to pollsters, so is the church!

Turns out getting people to church is not translating into either transformed lives or transformed society. According to both Barna Research and a Gallop poll, there is no statistical difference between churchgoers and non-churchgoers in the rate of divorce or in attitudes of racial prejudice or materialism.

Much of what we equate with SUCCESS in church is more rooted in cultural than Christian values.

We've mistaken decisions and baptisms -- visible outer expressions -- for conversions of the heart which are much more difficult to measure. We've mistaken church growth for cultural transformation. Greatness for leastness.

Returning good for evil. Foot washing. Embracing with God's love and grace one whose beliefs and lifestyles violate everything you most deeply cherish. Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Mercy. Kindness. Loving as God has loved us -- with unmerited, undeserved favor.

SUCCESS.


Development of SANCTUARY in existing Christians/lay missionaries (PALs). Training includes theology of SANCTUARY, Christian identity, training in non-verbal communication, curiosity, empathetic and perceptive listening, feedback, discernment, sensitivity, patience, acts of kindness, courtesy, gentleness, self-control, faith-sharing to postmodernists, invitation to Christ, Christian mental habits, and ethics in relationships.

SUCCESS: Agape Proficiency
Initial missionary movement. PALs out in the world intentionally and missionally in contact with unchurched where they are -- at work, shopping, health club, coffee shop, school, social events -- observing, listening, gaining insights, and developing compassion for the unchurched.

SUCCESS: Christian PALs penetrating society

First contacts with unchurched. Initial cultivation through footwashing -- acts of kindness, healing non-verbal cues, friendship initiation, active caring, empathetic and perceptive listening, “apples of gold” (words of encouragement), and other cultivating activities.

SUCCESS: Christ’s love shared and experienced with unchurched/non-Christians.

Credibility established. SANCTUARY received. Trust, openness, vulnerability, confiding all provisionally established. Gospel proclaimed first in deeds within relationship. First taste of the healing goodness of Christ -- the experience of Grace -- God’s unmerited favor. Uncommon, unnatural, and unexpected.

SUCCESS: Christian credibility established; Christian grace experienced

The Invisible Stage. Conversion/Recommitment to Jesus Christ, the Christian journey, and/or fellowship. No telling when conversion process commences. Sometimes expressed or shared, other times more implicit in changed attitude/behaviors. Conversion is God’s work, God’s way in God’s timing. We can’t see into the heart or mind.

SUCCESS: Spiritual conception; New identity/self-concept rooted in Christ.

NOTE: IF we accomplished nothing more than this, we would have done a good work and proven faithful in mission.

 

 

 Sanctuary community formation. Relational healing and support. Commitment to Lord Jesus Christ affirmed within safe community of persons united in common:
  * experience of God’s love and grace; 
  * mission to love other “outsiders” (unchurched) just as  they have been loved; 
  * support to demonstrate SANCTUARY toward each other.

SUCCESS: New Christian synergy; Sanctuary community birthed
Christian personal development commences. Learning about Jesus Christ and developing Christian habits. Formal training -- courses, workshops, Bible studies. Healthy marriage and/or relationship skills developed. Specialized training in Agape love skills, Christian identity formation, core values/beliefs and their implications, SANCTUARY cultivation practices and skills, cultural understanding for mission.

SUCCESS: Increasing “Fruit of the Spirit-ual” habits and perspectives in all relationships. Love of Jesus Christ more permeated in fellowship and mission field.

 

Worshipping community formation. Natural response as appreciation for and understanding of Jesus Christ grows. Increasing structure as natural stage in the lifecycle of any organism and organization to help fellowship coordinate and function more efficiently and effectively as team. May seek affiliation with other Christian churches or denominations, become independent church, or remain Sanctuary church.

SUCCESS: Quantitative and qualitative growth in missional church.

Pregnancy and reproduction. Natural pattern for all of life. Continual re-formation as individuals, families and communities grow and adjust to changing life circumstances. Expansion of Christ’s love to new and different generations and cultures locally and around the world. In some cases, original fellowship grows like a giant redwood -- ever dynamic, ever growing, even as new growth springs from its roots. In other cases, like the grain of wheat that falls to the earth, original organization dies but lives on in its offspring.

SUCCESS: Reproduction and continual growth/change until death/resurrection.