What is Success?
When my family served overseas on the mission field, well-meaning friends and supporters wanted to know how many people we had converted to Christ.
When we came back to the U.S. and planted a church in Colorado, curious church planters and church goers wanted to know how many people attended our services.
When I became an author, people wanted to know how many books I sold. As a podcaster they wanted to know how many downloads my show had.
Everyone is curious about the numbers. And honestly, so am I.
In our modern society where everything is measured, the way we who are in ministry calculate success is often with numbers. Attendees. Members. Converts. Readers. Listeners. How many lives have we touched and changed? For better or worse, in the 21st century, it’s all about numbers.
“All that we have—our salvation, breath, life, even the good works we are called to do—are from God. ”
The Desire for Success
The ever-present and unspoken question behind our numbers fixation is, “Am I making a difference?” We wonder if we’re having an impact, if we’re serving the Lord the right way, if our efforts really matter. Ministry is tough. It’s not unreasonable for us to want to know if our sacrifices are leading to any kind of measurable success.
And please hear me, it’s not objectively wrong to evaluate our work with numbers. Numbers are often helpful and necessary. We have to know how many seats to prepare in the sanctuary or which online platform to use for our emailed newsletters. We cannot hide from numbers—we do have to measure many of our activities. Additionally, it’s not wrong to want to serve many people. It can be pure and holy to desire numerical growth.
But more often than not, when I get overly focused on numbers, I fall into despair. I inevitably fall short. Because someone is always selling more books, or has more followers, or has won more people to Jesus than I ever will. When you and I deem a headcount of utmost importance, we will likely become paralyzed by imposter syndrome, compare ourselves to others, and obsess over our own shortcomings. Even worse, we may be tempted to exploit others for our own gain, to lie, to forego our faith for fame, or to do something sinister to inflate whatever bottom line we’ve labeled success. The human heart is deceitful (Jer. 17:9) and there will always be someone achieving higher numbers than you or me.
What Does Scripture Say?
Here are three stories from the Bible that might help us reach a better definition of success in ministry.
First, when God led the prophet Samuel to find the future king of Israel, David, God said of himself, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). While we are quick to evaluate ministry success based on appearance, our God looks further in.
Secondly, when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness promising him, “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory…if [Jesus would] fall down and worship [him], Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’” (Matt. 4:8-10). Jesus shows us there is something better than massive numbers of followers.
Thirdly, when the apostle Paul addressed the men of Athens, he told the pagan worshipers at the Areopagus that God “himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). He told the Ephesians something similar when he wrote, “we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). All that we have—our salvation, breath, life, even the good works we are called to do—are from God. Paul shows us we can rest in God’s good design for our lives and our ministries.
“Jesus had one task for me then and he has one task for me now: abide. ”
Is More Better?
I remember when my first child was brand new and we ourselves were very new to the mission field. I was overwhelmed with a sense that I wasn’t doing enough. I had made lists of nonbelievers I felt I should be meeting with. I felt I should be leading more Bible studies and outreach events. Based on the very small numbers that I could see, I was certain my personal ministry was a failure. I was fixated on a headcount. I looked only at appearance. I believed more was better.
But I had reached the end of my own capabilities. Adjusting to a foreign home and a new baby, I just didn’t have a lot of time and energy to make more ministry happen. Try as I might, I could not conjure up more events or bigger numbers. It was the first of countless times in ministry I had to reckon with my finitude and remember and reclaim what I believe about who I am and who God is. As I searched God’s Word for comfort, direction, and even motivation I read anew Jesus’s command for me: “Abide.”
Jesus says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5). Jesus had one task for me then and he has one task for me now: abide.
I remember pulling out the yellow legal pad on which I had scribbled all the tasks I wanted to do but could not physically accomplish. I crossed them all out and I wrote ABIDE at the top of the page. Jesus asks us to remain in him, and he promises to remain in us. It is then, and only then, that he (he!) produces fruit. In the Christian life, our one and only task is to abide in Christ.
What is Success?
Friend, all that we have and all that we are is from Jesus and for Jesus (Col. 1:15-20). He created us and he created our work (Eph. 2:10). Our task is to abide. His task is to grow the fruit. It is “only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7). The numbers are up to him and they are beyond our understanding (Isa. 55:8-9). Our God will do what he wills and that may include many people, many services, many converts, many readers, or only a few. While numbers may be necessary for practical reasons, they are no determinant of success.
Success in ministry is abiding. Success in ministry is faithfulness to Jesus Christ. Success in ministry is persevering to the very end.
May you and I, “run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:1-2). May we fix our eyes on Jesus. May we abide in him. Success in ministry is to remain in Christ, as he remains in us. No more. And no less.
Jen Oshman has been in women’s ministry for over two decades as a missionary and pastor’s wife on three continents. She’s the mother of four daughters, the author of Enough about Me: Find Lasting Joy in the Age of Self (Crossway, 2020), and the host of All Things, a podcast about cultural events and trends. Her family currently resides in Colorado, where she and her husband serve with Pioneers International and they planted Redemption Parker, an Acts29 church. Read more of Jen’s writing at jenoshman.com.
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