God’s Glorious Church
How Do We Measure Our Success?
Ephesians 3:21
Woodlawn Baptist Church
February 20, 2005
Introduction
As we enter into this portion of our services this morning, I want to once again welcome each of you and tell you that it is good to be here in the Lord’s house with you. If you are a guest, or have not been able to attend for the last few weeks, I want you to know that I have begun to preach a series of messages that are going to deal with the Lord’s churches and various issues as they relate to church life. Last week I told you that because man in his natural condition does not know God and in fact has no desire to know God, it is of utmost importance that our churches be in tune with why the Lord has left us here.
We are living in a day when the importance of the local church is not recognized by its own members. It is understandable that those outside of a church would not see the importance, but it is unacceptable for God’s own people not to recognize it. He has chosen this institution as the means whereby He is going to redeem mankind – and He has called you to be a part of that redemptive process. He has called on you and me to work together to reach people in the depths of their lostness, to lead them to Christ, to teach them to follow Him, to teach them His Word and to minister to them and mentor them as they grow and mature and join in the work with us!
Now, one of the wonderful things I believe to be true is that there are many of you who do know and do understand the importance of what we’re doing. In recent weeks we’ve been talking about it in terms of having a kingdom focus. We’ve said that in the average church 10% of the people do 90% of the work, but that doesn’t hold true here. Many of you are engaged in places of service, in places of ministry, doing what God has led you to do as we reach out and teach and train. Some teach, some clean, some visit, some drive the bus, and the list would go on. Our goal is to see every member actively engaged in some ministry, participating in some Bible study, attending most of the services, and since we know we’re not there yet, there is much work to be done.
I say all of that to lead up to the question I am asking in our message today: how do we measure our success as a church? If our mission is to reach the lost, lead them to Christ and help them to move into a place of ministry, then how do we measure our success in doing it? As we consider that thought this morning, there are three main ideas I intend to share with you. First, what difference does it make? Second, I want to point out how our success will not be measured, then last of all how it will be measured.
What’s All The Fuss About?
I’m going to speculate for just a moment that every one of you in this room could count on one hand the number of times you’ve heard a sermon about how to measure the success of a church. As a matter of fact, I would venture to say that some of you have never heard it talked about, and most have never seriously even thought about it. After all, we’re not taught or trained to think in terms of whether we’re successful as a church or not. As I’ve previously said, we usually just get caught up in “doing church” and the closest we get to thinking about being successful is in terms of Sunday School attendance. If we’re averaging 85 and one Sunday we have 90, then we had a good Sunday. If we only had 70, then we weren’t very successful that day.
It wasn’t until the last 25 years or so that much began to be written on the subject of church growth, and in the last 15 years the market has boomed with books and articles that deal with the subject. But here’s what has happened with all the writing – when you talk about growing churches, you necessarily have to deal with churches that are not growing, and a church that is not growing would seem to imply a lack of success. Churches that are growing equal success, those that are not do not equal success. Now that’s not my thinking – but that’s how much of what’s been written plays out.
Is it really all that important to think about whether a church is successful or not? I believe it is, but only if you maintain a biblical definition of success. Now, the dictionary defines success as attaining a favorable or desired outcome. That definition of success is fine when you think about specific goals that are set. For example, our goal this year is to save $4200 for the resealing and striping of our parking lots. If we do it before December, then we were successful, and if we don’t then we won’t attain our desired outcome. But applying that definition to a church’s overall ministry won’t work.
Here’s the definition of success that I’ve given you before and want you to remember. Success is coming to the end of your life, having fulfilled God’s will for your life. Now, let’s apply that to our church. Success is coming to the end of our time of ministry, having fulfilled God’s will for our church. If we use that definition of success, then it is of utmost importance that we know how God is going to measure our success. So how does God measure the success of a church? First let’s define how God is not going to measure it.
The Wrong Standards
While I am sure there are others, I have found that there are generally five standards that people misuse to determine whether they are in a successful church.
1. The Membership Roll
2. Sunday’s Attendance
3. The Bank Balance
4. Total Assets
5. Nice Facilities
Its easy to see why these would be used to judge whether a church was successful. Four years ago we had four hundred and ten people on the church roll. That sounds impressive when you go to preacher’s meetings. If some asked you in Wal-Mart how big your church is, you could say, “We have about 400 members!” But listen, in that four hundred we had some in jail, some who were drunks, some who were living together and some of them were you, coming to church. We didn’t even know who one-third of that four hundred was. I don’t mean that we just didn’t know them: we couldn’t find them, didn’t know if they were dead or alive, whether they had moved or anything. Can you imagine our church standing before God one day saying, “Hey Lord, we sure had a lot on the roll!” The membership roll doesn’t indicate success.
We are all guilty of it from time to time aren’t we? I’ll drive by a church somewhere, and they’ve got a gymnasium, a bus barn with four or five buses and vans, church cargo trailer, big facilities, large staff, and assume that they are enjoying success, but the reality is that we could all of those things and still be considered a failure in God’s sight. So what if we have $50,000 in the bank (and we don’t) if we aren’t reaching people for Christ? So what if we have nice, updated facilities if we can’t get people in them? New doors, nice van, pretty pews – sure it looks like success to us, but that’s not how God will measure it. Do you see the point? We could even be growing numerically and still be considered a failure in God’s sight if all we’re doing is getting people saved and sitting them in a pew – we’ve not followed all the way through in the process. So how will God determine our success?
The Right Standard
In order to answer this question, let’s go to the Scriptures. Look first with me at Ephesians 3:21. Here we find our foundational purpose – this is why we exist:
“Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Churches, like individuals exist to glorify God. We don’t exist for any other reason than to bring God honor and glory. We are here to make Him happy. I want to tell you that too much of what goes on in the name of church has more to do about us than it does about God. Remember our definition of success? Success is coming to the end of our time of ministry, having fulfilled God’s will for our church. What is God’s will for our church? It is to bring Him glory! It’s just that simple. If we’re not bringing Him glory, then we’re not successful, no matter what we may accomplish.
Now, if our church: if you and I as a collective body exist to bring God glory, then how does God want us to do that? How do we bring God glory? That leads us to our mission: The Great Commission. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20,
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
You could break our mission down into two major parts. First we must be reaching out to lost people. There are four ways our church is going to grow – and an honest look at them will tell us whether we are being successful in our mission.
1. Biological growth. This is when our children grow up and become part of our church.
2. Transfer growth. Transfer growth is when someone who is already a believer in Christ moves from one church to another. They were already attending members of some other church, but now they are uniting with ours.
3. Prodigal growth. A prodigal is someone without a recent church background. For whatever reasons they have fallen away from church and out of fellowship with God. They are saved, embrace Christian beliefs, but haven’t been in church for a while and now are. They come and unite with us and become actively involved in church. We might called these people saved, but unchurched, and it is still just transfer growth.
4. Conversion growth. This type of growth occurs when we reach a non-Christian, when we see people accepting Christ as their Savior and following Him in baptism and church membership.
Which one of those best identifies the kind of growth we’ve been experiencing? I’ll give them to you in order: transfer growth first, biological growth second, prodigal growth third, and lastly we are seeing conversion growth.
So, the first part of our mission is to reach the lost. The second part is to develop believers into fully devoted followers of Christ. Measuring spiritual transformation is not so easy, but there are certain characteristics present in the lives of those on the path toward true transformation that can be identified.
A believer ought to be growing in the fundamental areas of prayer, worship and Bible study. There should be involvement in some type of small group for fellowship, ministry and further growth. As they grow in the Word and become strengthened through small group ministry and fellowship, they will begin to discover how God has gifted them for service and they will begin to use those gifts in His service. So this second part of our mission is to take believers and help them to grow in their relationships with Christ and with other believers until they are actively and maturely involved in ministry themselves so that now they are involved in repeating the process.
So, here’s what it all boils down to: We exist to glorify God by fulfilling our mission of reaching the lost, leading them to Christ, and then developing those believers into fully devoted followers of Christ so that they are moved from their condition of lostness to full Christian maturity in the Word and in service.
Here is where I believe the controversy lies. On the one hand, someone will jump up and say that if we are not reaching the lost we are not successful. If we are not developing believers into fully devoted followers then we are not successful no matter what we say or do. On the other hand, you’ve got the group that will say something I’ve heard often: “Brother, God has not called us to be successful, but to be faithful. Noah preached for years and years and only had eight converts!”
I don’t agree with either, and I’m going to show you why, and in doing so I’m going to show you how God is going to determine whether we’re being successful as a church body or not. If we’re not fulfilling our mission, it is because of one of two things. It is either because we are not doing our part, or they are not doing their part. For instance, our church is not reaching the lost. We know that. You know it, I know it and God knows it. But truth be told, we are not reaching them because we are not going after them. That is our fault, and no matter what else we might do, we are failing in that area. Now, suppose that we were going out and preaching and sharing the gospel and beating down doors and witnessing every day, but they didn’t respond. Are we reaching the lost? Yes, but they are not responding, and so even though there would be no numerical growth, we would still be considered successful in God’s sight, because remember, success is coming to the end of our time of ministry, having fulfilled God’s will for our church. God’s will for our church is that we reach the lost. God’s will for them is that they receive Christ as their Savior.
What about the rest of our mission? Are we developing believers into fully devoted followers of Christ? Are we seeing all our members grow in prayer? In worship? In the study of His Word? Are we seeing people get involved in small group ministry? Again, it comes back to one of two things – either we are not doing what we’re supposed to be doing or you are not doing what you should be doing.
To say that God has not called us to be successful but to be faithful is an error. God expects us to be successful – so let me give you the correct way of saying it, and in doing so I’m going to give you the answer to our question today.
God has called us to be successful by being faithful.
Conclusion
I want you to turn to Luke 19:12 with me as we wrap this up. Jesus told a story that we’ll read part of.
“A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because though hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities…”
Do you see it? One ruler, appointing several stewards, giving them the resources they needed, and calling them into account when he returned. He did not give them all the same resources. Some had more, others less, but they all had something, and they all were to use what they had to produce results. He gave them work to do, and He expected to see tangible results from their labors, but I want you to notice this also: He did not reward them on the basis of what they produced, but on the basis of their faithfulness in the work with His resources.
Folk, how is God going to determine our success as a church body? How does He measure our success today? By our faithfulness to the work He has left us to do, and whether or not we are faithful in doing our part will determine whether or not He is receiving honor and glory and pleasure from who and what we are.
I cannot emphasize enough that our success is dependent on every one of you. I am not the church. We are Woodlawn Baptist Church. It isn’t me alone who will give an account, but all of us as a church body, and that includes you. We are on a mission here, and today I am calling on each of you to determine how committed you are to the success of our church.
I want for us to be able to say one day, when we come to the end of our time of ministry, that we have fulfilled God’s will for our church: that we did everything we possibly could to reach the lost of our community, and that we did everything we could to develop our members into fully devoted followers of Christ.
Where are you in the process today? Do you know Christ as your Savior? Are you growing in the Word? Are you growing in your prayer life? Are you involved in one of our small groups? Are you being engaged in ministry? If your answer is no to any of those questions, I would like to talk to you more about it. If you are not sure Christ is your Savior, then let’s make sure of that before you leave. If you are not a member here and want to join us in the work, then this is your invitation to unite with us. You follow as God leads you this morning.
