SUCCESS

“Onward and upward! To Narnia and the North!” This phrase appears in the book The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. It is a statement of progress, of moving forward and success. Onward and upward is still a prominent idea in today’s culture. We live in a time in which success means everything is up and to the right. The numbers are always growing and always high. In our world, to move forward means to produce, regardless of what it does to your body or soul. Success in business is determined by increasing annual revenue and soaring stock prices. In the world of art, success is determined by how many pieces or books you sell. The success of a concert or sporting venue is based on tickets sold. This measurement even trickles into our Christian worldview. Often we measure the success of a congregation by crowd size, growing budgets, and building expansions.  We measure success as a Christian by the amount of time we spend praying, serving, and reading the Bible and speaking our vast knowledge with others. I often wonder, “Is this really what Jesus considers success?”

When I was invited to become the pastor of Northbrook Church, I left a congregation of 400 people in Colorado to pastor this new one in Wisconsin of around 1,000. I was moving up in the world (or so I thought)! Northbrook began to grow, new buildings were built, more staff was hired, and I began to think “I have arrived!” Ten years later Northbrook hovers around 2,000 people on the weekend, and by many people’s definition is a successful church. Yet I have discovered it is so much more than that.

What we will discover in the scriptures is that sometimes the message of Jesus is hard and the expectations challenging. There is a story in John 6:25-70. Jesus is giving a teaching concerning his sacrifice and the commemoration of it through communion. He made statements like “eat my body” and “drink my blood” and it really freaked people out. So much so that many of Jesus’ followers stopped following. “ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66). Often Jesus’ ministry was one that shrank—not one that grew. Many of the crowds stopped following him, and in the end, all his disciples fled. One even denied him three times. Ultimately his mission was fulfilled and the church was born. It was a church committed to fellowship, understanding the message of the gospel, and ministering to people.

Yet our perspective in culture is very different. Ask the average Christian to describe a great church; you might hear things like, “a really good service; the music style/volume/length of singing is exactly what I like.” You might hear things like, “the preaching is dynamic,” or deep or transformative. You may hear something about age-specific programs for children, teenagers, millennials and senior adults. You may hear about conveniences like great parking, a cool building, and fresh coffee. All of those are great things, but that is not the definition of a church that is “winning” in the Bible.

When you turn to scripture, a successful community of faith is doing things like:

“Loving each other” (John 15:12)

“Meeting each other’s needs” (1 John 3:17-18)

“Encouraging each other and building each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

“Praying together” (James 5:16)

“Serving the poor” (Matthew 25:31-46)

“Making disciples” (Matthew 28:19)

Jesus has a very countercultural view of what progress meant. His definition of success is not found in numbers, programs, or acquisitions. To be successful in his kingdom, you don’t strive to be first; you strive to be last. You don’t strive to be the master; you strive to be the servant.

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:16)

“The greatest among you will be your servant.  For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:11)

In the gospels, the verbiage of success is found in words like love, humility, servitude, and peacemakers. (Matthew 5:3-11)
In this countercultural way, Jesus envisions a world that could be through the church.  Through the church, authenticity is embraced and people are welcomed. Through the church, people can find love in the midst of brokenness. Through the church, people are valued. Through the church, questions can be asked without fear of judgment and doubt, and be met with graceful words of comfort.  Through the church, our gifts and talents are maximized and used to do good in the world. Through the church, the poor are served, the marginalized are cared for. Through the church relationships are restored, people find wholeness and are encouraged and built up. This is progress, this is winning. This is something worth dedicating your life to.