With all of the practical advice our trainers had to offer at the conference sessions, it would be easy to be overwhelmed. Each trainer went over enough material to fill a full-week conference on its own, and they did it in about ninety minutes! Suffice it to say, if you were here with us this week, your task of learning and applying all of the material has only begun. That’s why it’s important to keep in mind what Steve Childers shared at the closing session. It’s important to remember “The Main Thing.”
In the book Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, R. Kent and Barbara Hughes share how they had to reorient their understanding of success before they were happy in the ministry. Nobody wants to be a failure. But the point here is that success ought to be measured according to the proper criteria. Church planters are as prone as anyone else to measuring their effectiveness against unhealthy, counter-productive, and even dangerous benchmarks. If your top goal as a church planter is to grow your church beyond 200 people – or even 50 – then you ought to be taking a step back and asking yourself why growth is important to you. Statistics can be helpful in gauging the health of your church. But real success ought to be measured according to God’s Word.
For example, look at what Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 25:14-30 (“The Parable of the Talents”). Even though one servant is trust with much and another with little, in the end they are each equally blessed. Why? Because each servant was faithful with what the master had given him. Likewise with church planters. The size of our churches are not indicative of our level of success. Rather, according to Steve, we are successful in ministry by “faithfully pleasing God with the resources and responsibilities he has given [us].”
Another source of trouble in the ministry can be all of the unexpected things that creep up and demand our time. If we’re not careful we’ll find more and more of our days spent dealing with things according to their level of urgency and regardless of whether they align with our ministry vision.
The root of the problem here is that we all tend to deal first with the things that are right in front of us (urgent). Instead of blindly following this approach, we should be mindful of our goals and do the things that serve them. This won’t mean always saying no to urgent matters that come up. But it does suggest that not all urgent matters are important. Distinguishing these two factors allows us to more effectively prioritize our schedules. Freeing ourselves from the tyranny of the urgent allows us to accept that our time is limited and that we cannot do everything that is asked of us. Instead, you should focus on the things that are important.
The Main Thing
Once we have liberated ourselves from both the success syndrome and the tyranny of the urgent, we can more clearly consider who we serve and what He is asking of us. Remember that it is God Himself – not church planters – who is building His church. Our work, then, should be done in the kind of faith that allows us to trust Him. This doesn’t mean we give up considering our vision, our Ministry Focus Group, or even our financial situation. But it means that we trust God with those things and do our work in the faith that He is sovereign and controls the outcome.
Practically speaking, Steve suggests five things to help us “make the main thing the main thing”:
- Understand the difference between your goals and desires. You have control over your goals. You do not have control over your desires. Learn to work towards your goals and pray for your desires. For instance, you can make it a goal to share the Gospel will five people this week. You can control that; so work toward it. But to see five people come to faith this week … that’s a desire. Be praying for that.
- Pursue the God of grace, not the grace of God. To paraphrase John Piper, grace is a means to God, not vice versa. Be humble enough to realize that you don’t love God as you ought, and ask for grace that you may love Him better. Also keep in mind that the very purpose of your ministry is to connect people of the same God of grace.
- Remember that the way up is the way down. Very often the solution to waking up a floundering ministry is to get to the heart of the minister’s pride and self-reliance. This again is a very humbling experience. Be honest where you have sinned and repent.
- Also remember the priority of people over programs. Most gifted church planters are visionary when it comes to organizing a working ministry based on effective programs. But those some men and women can also struggle not to let people get lost in the margins. If your programs aren’t producing mature disciples, then you need to take another look at them. A ministry that is perfect on paper is meaningless when people are not being effectively shepherded.
- Process living versus product living. I’ve heard this stated alternately, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” You’ll be a lot happier in the ministry if you’re not always focused on the next thing that you need to do – the next milestone you need to reach or program you need to implement. The alternative is a life spent devoted to “the cult of the next thing.”
So what is “The Main Thing.” It’s not the ministry. The main thing is loving both God and people.
Tags: Church Planter Training, Church Planting, Conferences, GCA, Global Church Advancement, John Piper, Main Thing, Planters, Planting Conference, Planting Seminar, Steve Childers