Sunday, October 09, 2005

When Gaining Weight is Good: Redefining Ministry Success

In a recent conversation with fellow Free Church pastor Lee Eclov, I mentioned this interview with Richard Foster and Dallas Willard about spiritual formation. That prompted Lee to paraphrase something Willard said in the Summer '05 issue of Leadership Journal about how pastors measure success. Lee was kind enough to forward the exact quote later that day and I'd like to share it with you. Here it is:
Pastors need to redefine success. The popular model of success involves the ABCs—attendance, buildings, and cash. Instead of counting Christians, we need to weigh them. We weigh them by focusing on the most important kind of growth…fruit in keeping with the gospel and the kingdom.

1 comment:

Phil Steiger said...

So very true. I think the current church world has become enamored with a marketing model of success and is quickly loosing a more biblical model of what a "successful" church looks like.