How do Christians measure success?

 

Fame and success seem to be precarious results for those in ministry

From the Eric Maze podcast.
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God's Wisdom and Goodness in Billy Graham's Life

Many years ago, I read a biography of Billy Graham. In the biography it described how, early on in Graham’s ministry—as his popularity and influence rose—significant money began to come in the form of many donations to the ministry.

I suspect it must have felt overwhelming… and very tempting.

So, as a young man Graham determined that he would form of a Board of Directors for the ministry to be responsible for the finances of the ministry and other aspects of their work, as well. Graham would be accountable to them.

This is what happened and the board handled the finances, paying Graham a salary.

I remember being impressed by this move. He did not have to arrange things this way. He was young, incredibly popular and successful. He could have rationalized, “Hey, this money is being sent to me to continue to do my noble work, therefore, it’s my money!”

But he did not.

Looking back on this decision, years later, Graham indicated that he believed it was one of the ways God, in His goodness and kindness, looked out for him and protected him—in a sense—from himself and his popularity.

Most of us are not particularly wise when we are young. Wisdom, tends to require time and experience to develop. I’m 59 years old, I’m hoping wisdom will kick in for me, any day now. This decision regarding finances was a form of God’s wisdom in Graham’s life. I am thankful for Dr. Graham’s willingness to create a form of authority to whom he remained accountable; his example of preaching the word of God; and his effective use of his gift of evangelism to help multitudes of people all around the world come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Rev. Dr. Billy Graham: November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018

Don't Give Up, Keep Trying

Sometimes our efforts seem to meet with resistance and failure so frequently that it can feel pointless to keep trying. To say this is disappointing is a vast understatement. In fact, when we run into this reality the primary challenge is to keep trying because the inclination to give up becomes so powerful.

These kinds of thoughts enter our minds, “Why should I keep banging my head against the wall? Just settle for something less.”

Since I have had the experience which I describe above on more than a few occasions, I found myself agreeing with and finding an unusual form of challenge and inspiration in this quote from Winston Churchill:  “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

Popularity Can Be Perilous

When a minister achieves popularity, fame and success it can be a good thing in the sense that it can open doors to the message the minister proclaims. It can mean the minister is enabled to reach far more people. There is the potential for the popularity, fame and success to be positive.

(By the way, popularity, fame and success are tremendously appealing. If any minister tells you he/she has absolutely no interest whatsoever in popularity, fame and success there is a 99.99999 percent chance you are not being told the truth.)

However, popularity, fame and success can also be incredibly troublesome for a minister because, at the end of the day, ministers are people. We are human. (You’ve noticed that already, haven’t you?) This means we are susceptible to human temptations, just like everyone else.

A powerful temptation for the popular minister is to want to do and say things that will increase the popularity—or, at least, to not diminish the popularity. The desire to increase or maintain the popularity is a very dangerous reality because it is of primary importance that the minister is obedient, first and foremost, to God. The most essential objective for the minister is to do and say what is pleasing to God. But Christian history, common sense and real life experience tells us that sometimes doing and saying what is pleasing to God will not be what will maintain popularity.

When popularity, fame and success have been achieved it is incredibly difficult for the minister to ever willingly do anything which would jeopardize that status. This is likely to mean the minister may alter God’s truth in order to make it culturally acceptable or just to make it “feel good” for those who are listening. That is a perilous position for a person whose primary goal is to do God’s bidding.

Lots of ministers all over the world will be speaking today. My prayer is that all of us—myself included—will be concerned most of all with pleasing God and accurately proclaiming the truth of His word.

Doing Difficult Things And Learning From Failure

Every now and then it’s not a bad idea to do something hard.  Something difficult at which you are likely to fail. 

If you are waiting for the punch line it’s not coming.  I’m actually serious about the idea of doing hard things that are likely to fail.

First of all, we tend to learn more from failures than from successes.

Second, even if we do fail, we learn a critically important life lesson: Failures are not fatal.  It is genuinely helpful to know we can fail at something and it is not the end of the world.  Life goes on.

Third, even if it’s a long shot, we might just succeed.  If we actually succeed at something when we were likely to fail it opens up entirely new ideas in our minds regarding what is possible.

“You will not grow without attempting things you are unable to do.”

Dr. Henry Cloud

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Striving For Success On God's Terms

When I became the pastor of the church in Oak Lawn, I (secretly) thought I would be the successful pastor of the successful church filled with successful people.  I was not anticipating the possibility that God had other plans in mind.  As time has gone by I’ve come to realize that a more accurate description of the situation would be that we are the church for hurting people.

That was not what I was expecting.

But God is helping me understand I can still be the successful pastor of the successful church filled with successful people.  It’s just that I need to have an accurate understanding of success as God defines it.

Success is this:  Faithful obedience to God.