success

how does a person define success? sometimes it is winning an argument (speaking personally), sometimes it is being right (again guilty), sometimes it is being well-liked by everyone, sometimes it is being disliked by everyone, sometimes it is growing a large church, sometimes it is doing everything yourself. some value money, some value pride, some value popularity. the question we have to ask, as the church is in a huge paradigm shift, is; how will we define success?
for previous generations it was no doubt the mega church. for some during the same time it was being so counter-cultural that they would never be a mega church.
i would define success for us during this shift in much the same way leonard sweet defined it while he was here a few weeks ago lecturing. we must leave behind the extraneous things, those things that have become cumbersome, those things that are not enhancing or developing anyone's personal relationship with christ jesus. we must remember our task as the church, and that is to win as many as possible.
we cannot win them in the masses, but in the individual. i have a great friend now, he started as just a coworker. when he first started working with me his life was a mess. but somewhere on the way god broke into his life again, reminded him that he was a beloved child, and helped him back onto the journey of life.
each of us needs that reminder. we need someone in our community to speak words of value into our lives, or to show that we are valuable by spending time, or money, or energy. this happens in community. if people are outside of the community, but can then be incorporated in, it opens them to hear the words of value that god wants to speak to them. we can only be available, we cannot make someone hear, and we cannot make our numbers increase, but success should be defined by reminding people of their value, value that the enemy wants desperately to strip them of, to discourage, and to kill. i think that is success.