Marty (SBC Outpost) has written a short critique of this article that laments the immaturity of young pastors.
One sentence from Dr. Caner’s lamentation caught my attention: I shudder when I read blogs of men who have never grown a single church, or accomplished anything to deserve to have an opinion, criticize those who have toiled the fields of souls, sweat through all-night prayer meetings, and bled on the battlefields of spiritual warfare. Aside from the obvious criticism of generalizing an entire generation as having never toiled, sweat or bled, I’m curious about the blanket statement that those under 50 belong to a generation who have never “accomplished anything”.
Nothing? Perhaps he meant nothing worthwhile, or nothing monumental or nothing that smacks of success.
I decided a long time ago that success can only be measured one way: have I accomplished, to the best of my ability, that to which God has called me? Have I done what He told me to do?
I know men whom God has called to pastor dying or plateaued churches and – while not setting any records for church growth or baptisms – have indeed accomplished what God put in front of them. They kept the church alive, confronted those mired in sin, arrogance, or apathy and prepared the way for the next minister to come and accomplish what God had in store for him.
Success as a marriage counselor can’t be measured in how many divorces I help prevent. Some couples come literally one step ahead of the divorce attorney. (I remember a couple a few years ago who saw me in the morning and proclaimed I had one shot – 50 minutes – to save their marriage; they already had an appointment with their attorneys at 2pm the same day.) Others have no intention of changing: they have come to the marriage counselor’s office for me to fix their spouse which isn’t the same as saving their marriage.
Success for me is knowing I have done all I know to do for the hour they are with me. What they do with any insights gained or skills learned after they leave my office is up to them.
One of the problems in church life (at least among the congregations and pastors with which I am familiar) is that the definition of success is often handed to us as though it were carved in stone: one definition for all and anyone who fails to meet a predetermined benchmark is a failure.
I don’t see how it is possible to fail when you are right in the middle of where God has called you.
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Thanks, Bowden…this post really resonates with me.
Bowden -
That last sentence. Wow. What an encouragement. Thanks.
Bowden,
Thanks for tackling that particular thought. My general overview did not provide room.
How true, how true is your insight.
Kerri, Dori, and Marty,
Thank you for the kind words. Now… if I could just figure out what it means to be a successful blogger!
Bowden,
Were your last statement NOT true, Noah would have been an abject failure, as would have Abraham, Rahab, Barak, Samson, and the host mentioned in Hebrews 11 of whom it was said…
“they wandered in deserts, and in mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
Success? Perhaps it’s a simple “well done good and FAITHFUL servant.”
With so many pastors doing very public face plants off their pedestals it may be time to review our definition of successful. I find it odd that ‘growing’ a church would be the ruler of success.
Josh
“…the word of God is not bound.”
–2 Timothy 2:9