The secret to success in ministry...

I haven't exactly been hitting it out of the park lately... spiritually speaking that is.

Kind of in a slump.

I was sitting here praying this morning (after procrastinating, thinking about other things, looking at Apple blogs, etc) when I remembered a tidbit from way back when. While in Bible college I had interviewed one of my professors who was also a pastor. It was for a ministry class, and really, the only thing I remember him saying was his answer to "So what's the secret for success in ministry?"
Without skipping a beat he said simply "Success in ministry is entirely dependent on your personal walk with God."

So, like I say, sitting here, thinking about that this morning. Truth be told, that little sentence has been running through my head for almost twenty years now...

"Success in ministry is entirely dependent on your personal walk with God."

Really? Is that a fair statement to make? Is the whole thing down to me, and my spirituality?
Even if it's not entirely dependent... it MUST play some role, right?

Chris, our associate pastor recently told me one of his favorite staff meeting moments was when we were talking through a nice long chain of things that had gone wrong and I finally just looked at him and Dustin and said, "Alright... which one of you guys is looking at porn?"

Okay- maybe there isn't that strict cause and effect between time spent reading Scripture/praying/steering clear of sin and good things happening... or is there?

Couldn't that just devolve down into a Christian Pastor's version of karma?

"Success in ministry is entirely dependent on your personal walk with God."

I guess there are really only three options- it is, it isn't or it is somewhat.
And it probably matters how you define success. For me, success is when I do that which I'm supposed to be doing in ministry- loving people, loving God, helping other people to love God... teaching them well, counseling them wisely, pastoring with integrity.

How could my personal stuff NOT play into that mix?

"Success in ministry is entirely dependent on your personal walk with God."

So- what do you think?

Is it true?

Am I screwed?

Comments

[Dana Ames]

1) No.
2) No.

Bob, one's ministry is not ENTIRELY dependent upon anything but Jesus' incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension/rule and sending of the Spirit. To make it *entirely* dependent on anything else is, I think, to misunderstand some things, and seems deterministic to me. I think one's ministry does depend on the call of God and one's faithful response. But that faithful response is going to look different from day to day, and our occasions of unfaithfulness are not going to *ultimately* thwart God's work.

I believe in a good God who is sovereign. It's a challenge to live in the tension of trusting a totally free God on one hand, and God dealing in/with/through people he created with the ability to choose, accomplishing his purposes without violating human choices, on the other hand. (Another one of those paradoxes that Christianity has room for...) To try to pin God's sovereignty down more than that seems to me to be missing the point at best, and bordering on magick at worst. It's another manifestation, in my view, of the Enlightenment notion of "progress", evidenced by the question (appropriate more for the world of Business Enterprise) about The Secret To Success.

I think being humble about not always having to know exactly how God is working and at the same time trusting God to work is a safe place to be. It's certainly less guilt-producing and stress-inducing.

Dana

[Mark]

Well I think I would disagree with the ministry success directly proportional to the quality of your walk with God. I think you are correct hat it depends an awful lot on what you define ministry success as. Personally, the last two years have been probably the best and most fulfilling in my "walk with God" but the most frustrating and dry in the ministry I am serving in. I think it is awfully easy for us in professional ministry to to fall into the trap of thinking when things are frustrating or difficult God must be mad or our spiritual lives are lacking.... sounds an awful lot like the disciples asking about the blind man "who sinned he or his parents" and Jesus reply was neither, but we will all see God's glory in this.

There is a denomination that will go unnamed that used to require believers who were baptized by pastors who fell away to be re-baptized. That was Pelagianism in its worst form...

I remember listening to Rich Mullins talk about his desire not to be "used" by God cause even the Pharisees were "used by God" as was Pilot, Herod and Judas... He talked about wanting to be "wanted" by God..."Jesus called those he wanted" (Mk 3)

Don't you have to parse words here... I planted three churches that are still going strong. Men and women I discipled are spread through out the globe taking the gospel with them, and I was a wreck. God used an ass to speak to the Israelites, he sure hell can use me to. His use of me is not determined by anything I do.

Lots of people look successful and if you were to ask their congregants about them you wold hear that they were successful, but deep down inside they know it is a farce and a lie. So are they successful? Now that is an entirely different question...

[roger mugs]

while I want to agree with you in theory (because it seems to me a wholly sound argument), i've seen an aweful lot of sinful people succeed for an aweful long time..

the Lord seems to have grace where we hold ourselves back. I think our personal walk withe Lord is just one element.

sometimes i think we have our act together but because of guilt related to the amount of time we spend in our quiet times WE end up affecting our success....

just saying it could be anything...

the other thing is sometimes we just seem to have dry times. sometimes success doesn't come because its just not God's timing

[jason smith]

Bob,

I think what you are getting at, is not, the health or functionality of your religiosity. That is, the things you do for God. You are speaking of your identity IN CHRIST. And, YES, ABSOLUTELY, the health of your ministry will be directly effected by the health of your identity IN Christ. I pray that you are finding your identity there. Resting there!

If you are...those you influence will be impacted.

Jason

[sonja]

Whoa ... talk about yer zero-sum games influenced by a capitalist paradigm. I'd say your first question should be, what does ministry success look like? How can that be defined? Why would you want to define it for those purposes? Eww ... then you're a CEO. Crass.

A ministry is a complex social organism. I daresay you have limited influence over its success or failure (however those might be defined), regardless of the nature of your spiritual walk with God.

That statement was designed to manipulate, humiliate and detonate. All of which it is doing right now in your life. God is not in any of this. This is not His way, nor is it the way of the Spirit.

Put it behind you and move on to something more life giving and fulfilling. Easier said than done, I'm sure ...

[Mark Stephenson]

Thank you for your honesty. It is refreshing. It is what every pastor asks him/herself.

Jesus seemed pretty unsuccessful...at first. Yet we know he was perfect. That tells me that receptivity of the hearts to whom and with whom we minister matters.

I don't know. I have felt more "useful" to God in times where my intimacy with him was close. Maybe I just heard his voice better so I could make better decisions. Maybe I felt his presence so it changed my attitude about things. I don't know.

Some times I feel like a tool in His hands. Like a surgeons scalpel. The sharper I am, the better the surgery goes. If I am dull, the surgery still goes, it's just that the patient loses more blood and takes longer to recover.

But there is something in my spirit that isn't comfortable with that "tool" analogy. I am more than a tool to God. I am His son. He is my Father. I am His servant and friend. He is my King. Those seem to be more biblical metaphors for my relationship to Him.

Maybe it is like Saul and David. Saul lost his Kingship because of his rebellion. David sinned like a champ but didn't lose his Kingship. What was the difference? Both received punishment/discipline for their sin that was unique and personal. Maybe God differentiated not based solely on action but on the condition of the heart.

I think I am left with the idea that my intimacy with God does matter in my ability to minister, but I will never know exactly how it matters. If I were to know, I would use that to try to manipulate God. If it remains a mystery, I remain dependent.

Thank you for your thoughts and your question.