Type:
We live in an age of celebrity where people become famous for merely being famous—they have little talent or significant skills. They have become adroit at taking selfies and giving people the impression that they’re someone to watch and emulate. Unfortunately the same type of pattern emerges in the church where celebrity pastors and theologians dominate the scene. To be clear, just because a pastor or theologian has a presence on social media or takes selfies doesn’t automatically mean that he’s doing something wrong. On the other hand, I do think that too many in the church measure a theologian’s worth by the number of books, blog posts, tweets, or conference appearances he makes. People in the church measure success and fidelity by the wrong index of achievements.
The Bible does not present success in empirical terms—numbers of converts, the size of a church, the number of books written, or the like. Rather, the Bible presents success in terms of a person’s fidelity. Is the prophet or apostle, for example, faithful to God’s call? This is the ultimately measure of true success. The prophet Isaiah, for example, was by all contemporary indices a failure. God called him to a ministry of judgment. He was supposed to preach a message of judgment until the cities were a desolate waste (Isa. 6:11). Isaiah didn’t write books, speak at conferences, or have a big church, but he was faithful to God’s call and this made him a successful prophet—he was faithful. The New Testament presents a similar portrait of the apostle Paul. There were many far more impressive preachers, the so-called “super apostles” (2 Cor. 11:5). People believed Paul was unimpressive and an unskilled orator (2 Cor. 11:6). He was anything but “successful” in the eyes of many, but in God’s eyes he was faithful to his calling and this made him successful. Does this mean that you shouldn’t be concerned about keeping a watchful eye on empirically measurable accomplishments? That is, some might use faithfulness as an excuse for being lazy or even purposefully offensive. Just because you have a small church, for example, doesn’t automatically mean that you’re being faithful. It could mean that you’re being lazy—you need to expend more effort in evangelism and outreach.
Above all else, be faithful to the Lord’s call, do your very best, and leave the results up to him. You may labor your entire ministry in relative obscurity and by the world’s standards you’re unsuccessful. But following God’s call and faithfully preaching the gospel to a small congregation in a rural community means that in his eyes you are very successful. Measure your success in terms of your fidelity, not in the way the world measures it.
