Success

Confession: This is my second attempt at writing this entry. The first time I spent a lot of time lambasting the Church for the way it was/is doing ministry. God stopped me in the middle of it and said: "Ben, I don't need you to criticize the ways I had my Church minister in the past. What I need you to do is articulate a way of ministering to this generation." Ouch... So, now being humbled, I will try my best to articulate how I see God ministering to my generation.

What is success in the Church? How do we measure and recognize it?

Success in the Church needs to be about quality, not quantity. The number of people in your church doesn't matter if their lives are the same now as they were when they first walked in. I have said for a number of years now that Jesus commanded us to make disciples not converts. Loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength is the definition of success. Becoming more like Jesus everyday is how we measure that.

God is in a season of restoring the first commandment to first place in the lives of His children. All else pales in comparison for this generation of believers. God is calling for simplicity and focus and the ministers of this age need to understand that. My generation recognizes Truth as it is lived out. Jesus is THE Truth, so if we are to give my generation something worth living for, we need to become more like Him.

Pastors, you need to live lives of transparency and authenticity if you want to evangelize my generation. We don't need you to be perfect, we are all too aware of our own imperfections. If you insist on keeping up a facade, you will lose us. We can smell farce a mile off. We want something to live for. We want something to give ourselves to. We want a Reality to be welcomed into. We want to be immersed in the Kingdom so that we can learn its ways, its language and its heart. Hospitality is the way to reach us. Open your homes, open your lives and invite us in. Model what it means to be the Church. Teach us by example. We are not asking for a list of self-righteous regulations - we are looking for faithfullness to the One you call LORD.

Faithfulness, that is the key. We don't need any other reasons for you to do something other than "God told me to." We respect that kind of boldness. We don't want you doing or not doing something because it might be "bad for business." We want you doing and not doing things because that is what God has called you to. We don't want a religious front, we want a living, breathing, vibrant servanthood.

I am a champion of the small church. I want to know and be known. I understand that large churches can do a lot of good. I get that, but my mind always goes to a story that Jesus told. He said, "In that Day many will come to me and say 'Lord, Lord we cast out demons and preformed many miracles in Your name (or we fed many hungry, built many wells, etc.)' and Jesus will say to them 'Depart from me you evildoers for I never knew you.'"

We want to do good things, don't get me wrong. We are sold out on the idea of social justice. But to what end? If there is no lasting impact, if we spend ourselves for naught, what is the point? Knowing Jesus is our model of success. Because the more we know Him, the more we are captivated by Him. We are drawn in by the beauty of His character, by His compassion, by His ability to heal. That births within us the desire to be like Him and since He is the God-man, the very essance and representation of God here on the earth we find ourselves loving God more - wanting to be like Him too. We find ourselves thinking about Him and how we can partner with Him in advancing His Kingdom here on the earth. That is something we can give ourselves to. That inspires us. That calls us further in, further up.

A recent Gallup poll indicates that most ministers spend an average of 5 minutes in prayer each day. That wont do. That hardly gives one the juice to get through the day, let alone have anything leftover to share with another. Pray. Get to know Him. Let Him rock your world.