Popularity and prestige doesn't always equal success. It seems to me that success in leadership in ministry today is centered around personalities, styles, and popularity. The greater the numbers, the greater the success. However, just because everyone loves you, doesn't necessarily mean you are successful nor that you are in God's will. We like to think that God's blessing and His will always equals big numbers, but that simply isn't the case. Success is not defined by the number of people in the pews, but the level of our obedience.
By nature of this numbers/popularity driven concept of success, the missionary who devotes his life to reaching Muslims in the Middle East, who works for a decade with just a handful of converts, would be considered completely unsuccessful in his ministry. He isn't filling stadiums or packing out houses, but faithfully serving where the Lord has placed him. Every pastor wants the big numbers, every leader has dreams of grandeur, but often our grandiose dreams in no way resemble the calling that God has for our lives. We substitute our imagination for God's design, replacing His desires with our creative dreams. We want to shortcut the desert to arrive at the palace.
Moses is quite possibly the greatest example of obedient leadership that we can find. Granted, he had his shortcomings and failures, but he wasn't looking to lead a couple million Jews out of Egypt. He was a fugitive, on the run, hiding in the back desert for 40 years when God found him. He learned lessons in leadership through shepherding sheep and God drew him from the desert to lead His people to safety, but Moses never had dreams of grandeur. He obediently followed God's call with humility and, quite often, a lack of confidence. He was perfectly happy on the backside of nowhere, but was obedient to follow God wherever He took him.
Several years ago, when I moved to Colorado to become Associate Pastor, I learned a very big lesson in following God's call. God has placed big dreams in my heart and when I was led to Glenwood Springs, CO to go on staff at a church that averaged 50-60 people on Sunday I was excited but confused. I knew that God had called me to the mission field, given me dreams of big things that He would accomplish. I asked God one day, "Lord, what about my dreams? How can I ever accomplish all these big things here in the mountains? This isn't the mission field! I can't be big in your kingdom here on the slopes of the Rockies!" Very quietly, God spoke to my heart. "Are you concerned with your dreams? What if you never get to accomplish those dreams? What if this is the end of the line for you? Is that enough? What if I birthed those things in your heart only for someone else to complete? Are you okay with serving me here in a small church, never accomplishing those great things?"
I also didn't want to be a Youth Pastor, but that was part of my job description. I never wanted to be a Youth Pastor, had no passion for it, no desire to do it. "God, I'm not a Youth Pastor. I'm not called to do that!" Once again, He simply said, "Josh, are you that worried with a title? Are you that concerned with where you are and what you are doing? Are you the one that called yourself to ministry? Which do you choose: obedience or a title? Ministry isn't about a title and if you are that hung up I can use someone else. I called you and I determine where you go. You see a need, you meet a need. You are called to a ministry, to obedience, not a title!"
Talk about being put in your place. I had to come to terms with my own dreams and ideas, realizing that obedience demands that I be ok with obscurity. Success in God's economy isn't determined by numbers and quantity, but by faithful obedience. I'm convinced that the most successful, blessed, and amazing servants of God are sometimes the most obscure, unheard of people. There is a reason that God leads us through the small things first, to see if we will be obedient and faithful in the little, before he gives us the big stuff. Success = radical obedience. It means being willing to live in obscurity, out of the public eye, with a small church, if that is what God calls us to.
We don't decide the area of our calling or the size of our congregation; He does. We don't determine our giftings or bring key people into our lives; He does. We exist to serve Him and make Him famous, not the other way around. Faithfulness and obedience are currency in the Kingdom. That is the way that God determines success. When we are willing to put aside our dreams, ambitions, and pride to humbly serve the least of these, in the most remote areas, with no resources, and even without growing more than a few in a decade, then we can truly say that we are successful. That doesn't mean that God doesn't grow His church or doesn't bless us, that doesn't mean that we are to be stagnant or complacent, but it is an attitude of satisfaction in serving where God has placed us, doing all we can to accomplish His purposes wherever we are, in whatever circumstance we find ourselves.
Let us not despise the day of small beginnings.
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