“The church is always tempted towards a church of glory, whether that takes the form of grand buildings, political influence, global structures, charismatic personalities or mega-churches. But an approach to the church consistent with the gospel of Christ crucified and discipleship shaped by that gospel is an ecclesiology of the cross. That means power in weakness, wisdom in folly, and glory in shame. It means we must put our confidence in Christ’s little flock and the sovereign rule of God. It means we must put our energies into the church of the cross even if that means obscurity.
The problem is that ‘power made perfect in weakness’ is so counter-intuitive and counter-cultural that we do not believe it. We believe that God will use the powerful and important and impressive. But he does not. We need a radical change of perspective. We need to ditch our worldly notions of success. We need to ditch our modernistic preoccupation with numbers and size. We need to turn our notions of success upside down so that we align them with God’s kingdom perspective.” (Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church, p.194-5)
As I stand on the precipice of church planting and church leadership I’m overwhelmed by the need I have for God to come and do some serious reconstructive surgery in my heart so that I will lead his church with a theology of the cross and not a theology of my own glory.
Wow, very powerful, very challenging!
But does ‘success’ mean you have failed?
I think sometimes it does. But I guess fidelity to a theology of the cross in life and practice is the measure of success. There are pastors in charge of some very big churches that have shown the utmost fidelity to a theology of the cross in all of their life (I’m thinking people like John Piper).
I think another measure of success is faithfulness to the particular mission and ministry that God has gifted one for. I don’t only mean that corporately but also for each person who forms part of the body. Yes, there are many tasks one has to do even if one is not much good at doing them, but in general the church should be encouraging people to live out their gifting – as in Romans 12:6-8 “if a man’s gift is… let him serve/teach/encourage/give/govern etc.” All this in the context of thinking of ourselves with humility and sober judgment.
I think that the ONLY measure of success IS faithfulness to God’s directives.
I say this because very rarely will we have any idea as to what God might be doing in the hearts of the people we find ourselves ministering to.
Consider Isaiah’s commission to preach to a people ‘who will hear but never understand, see but never perceive…otherwise they might turn and I (God) would heal them.’
In case we think that this might’ve been an isolated event in God’s dealing with Israel then the fact that Jesus uses these very same words to convey a fundamental characteristic concerning gospel work (Matt 13:10-17) should prevent us from coming to that conclusion.
Think about it, how many sermons have you heard on Isaiah 6:1-13?
Stephen- Etch that quote on your brain, mate. And let is sink to the depth of your soul.
The message of the cross is not just a declaration of what God has achieved on the cross, but a life lived. Our message and our methods must be cruciform in nature.
God be near you.