This is the seventh in a series of blog posts called, “My Top Ten Mistakes in Ministry (That I Can Share Publicly.)” After many years of ministry experience as a church planter, pastor and seminary professor, I think I’ve finally learned that one of the best kept secrets to surviving well in the ministry is to stop making the same old mistakes that others (like me) have been making for decades. Instead, let’s all start making some brand new, bold, innovative and creative mistakes!

We began this series with an introduction called, “Ladies First” in which veteran church planter wife, Shari Thomas, addressed the tough topic, What I Wish I Had Known About Church Planting from the perspective of the church planter’s/pastor’s spouse. We then took a look at:

Mistake #1 (these are in no intentional order), “Failing to Understand the Importance of How I Define Ministry Success.”

Mistake #2 Managing My Time and Not Managing My Life

Mistake #3: Not Understanding the Difference Between my Goals and Desires.

Mistake #4: Not Understanding the Difference Between Pursuing the Grace of God and the God of Grace.

Mistake #5: Not Understanding the Way Up is the Way Down

Mistake #6: Not Understanding the Priority of People Over Programs

Mistake #7: Not Understanding Product Living VS Process Living

I have to confess that I belong to what Pastor Mark Buchanan calls the Cult of the Next Thing. Buchanan writes, “It is dangerously easy to get enlisted. It happens by default–not by choosing the cult but by failing to resist it. It is dangerously easy to get enlisted. It happens by default–not by choosing the cult but by failing to resist it.”

For me the Cult of the Next Thing is sinful discontentment cast in religious terms.  It has its own sacred terms like: our ministry vision, our mission, our goals, our objectives. Please don’t misunderstand, these are good things, but we begin to believe that we can’t ever really be happy until we get them.

This Cult also has its own Mantras we church planter types often quote: I’ll be happy when we have a certain number of people in worship every Sunday. Or I’ll be happy when we are self-supporting financially as a church. Or I’ll be happy when we are self-governing with our own elders or deacons. I’ll be happy when I’ve been able to pass this baton (you name it) to another leader. I’ll be happy when I’m not sick anymore…when the kids are older…when the kids are gone….

And this Cult has its own shrines in other ministries that are doing better than ours.  And it has its own ecstatic experiences: those fleeting moments when you finally reach a goal you’ve been living for and looking to for so long. It feels great. But like sand through your fingers it ever so quickly slips away from you. So then you must look ahead to the next experience.

Author Isaac Rubin writes, “The joy and happiness from the process lasts much longer and can be much more satisfying over the duration of your life. But if you are totally goal-oriented in a success-oriented culture, and if the product is the only goal, you will destroy much of the possibility for true joy and happiness in life. That is because almost all of your life has to be the process and not the product. If you can’t learn to appreciate and enjoy the process of living itself, there goes your joy in life.

If you get nothing out of the doing, because you are always looking for the high that will come at the end, you’re in serious trouble. But if you learn to be nourished by the whole process, that result at the end of the road, positive or negative, is not terribly significant. You just go on to the next process. You must learn to understand and appreciate “Process Living” because the process is really what life is all about. We are in process 98 % of the time. If you are living for that final 2%, you’re in trouble. And the truth is most of us are in serious trouble.”

The story is told when Alexander the Great conquered the entire known world, he wept because there were no more worlds for him to conquer. The opiate of winning the next battle was now gone and he was left trembling in withdrawal, unable to live and love life in the present.

Elizabeth Elliot summed it up well, “ Don’t let your living for tomorrow slay your living for today.” If you’re not very careful you will always be living for tomorrow and find yourself being robbed of all of your todays. I wish someone had talked straight to me about that common and so costly mistake in life and ministry.

Steve Childers is the President & CEO of Global Church Advancement, an inter-denominational ministry that provides church planting training, consultations, and resources for church planters, pastors and missionaries throughout the world. Steve has trained Christian leaders from more than 50 countries (curriculum in five major global languages), representing over 200 denominations and mission agencies in 5 continents (& 5 languages). Steve is also an author, Professor of Practical Theology (since 1995) and the Director of the Doctoral program at Reformed Theological Seminary, in Orlando, Florida, where he teaches church planting, missions, evangelism and spiritual formation. To learn more about GCA:

Browse the GCA Website: http://www.gca.cc

Join the GCA Cause: http://bit.ly/X5bZC

See the GCA Blog: http://www.gca.cc/blog/

Follow GCA on Twitter: http://twitter.com/_gca

Follow Steve on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevechilders

Check out upcoming GCA Events: http://gca.cc/Seminar_Overview.htm

Support GCA: http://gca.cc/Support_GCA.htm

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts called, “My Top Ten Mistakes in Ministry (That I Can Share Publicly.)” After many years of ministry experience as a church planter, pastor and seminary professor, I think I’ve finally learned that one of the best kept secrets to surviving well in the ministry is to stop making the same old mistakes that others (like me) have been making for decades. Instead, let’s all start making some brand new, bold, innovative and creative mistakes!

We began this series with an introduction called, “Ladies First” in which veteran church planter wife, Shari Thomas, addressed the tough topic, What I Wish I Had Known About Church Planting from the perspective of the church planter’s/pastor’s spouse. We then took a look at:

• Mistake #1 (these are in no intentional order), “Failing to Understand the Importance of How I Define Ministry Success.”
• Mistake #2 Managing My Time and Not Managing My Life
• Mistake #3: Not Understanding the Difference Between my Goals and Desires.
• Mistake #4: Not Understanding the Difference Between Pursuing the Grace of God and the God of Grace.
• Mistake #5: Not Understanding the Way Up is the Way Down

Mistake #6: Not Understanding the Priority of People Over Programs

It’s been thought by all of us in Christian ministry (both clergy and laity) at one time or another: “I love God, and I love the ministry, but it’s just people that I really don’t like!” In his best-selling book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman writes, “When Jesus’ plan is reflected upon, the basic philosophy is so different from that of the modern church that its implications are nothing less than revolutionary….His concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes but with people whom the multitudes would follow….People were to be His method of winning the world to God. The initial objective of Jesus’ plan was to enlist men who could bear witness to His life and carry on His work after He returned to the Father.”

I had the privilege of having Dr. Coleman as one of my professors when I was in seminary in Chicago (Trinity). I’ll always remember his incessant repetition of this same basic concept over and over again: while in the ministry if we don’t actively, constantly fight against it, we will inevitably become nothing more than mere “ministry program administrators—thereby failing to be like Jesus who always made people (not programs) his highest priority.

In Jesus’ words to Peter, after the resurrection, we learn again that one of the greatest ways we can show our love to Christ is not merely by doing great ministry exploits for him, but by showing sacrificial love to his sheep–to love deeply and well those He loves and those for whom he laid down His life. With these lenses on, take a new look now at these ancient words of the resurrected Christ to Peter:

“So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

Here we are meant to learn a valuable lesson about life and ministry that is very easily missed if we’re not very careful. The lesson? One of the greatest ways to show our love to Jesus is by showing our love to His sheep—especially when they don’t love us well. It’s relatively easy learning to lead well. But it’s really hard learning to love well.

Hear his voice today asking “Do you love me?” Then hear his answer, “Tend my sheep.” In other words, love those whom He loves–lay down your life to shepherd well especially those sheep who are back-biting, betraying, whining, unappreciative and arrogant. Where in the world can you find the power to do that? It begins by realizing how deeply the Good Shepherd keeps loving you in the face of all your back-biting, betraying, whining, lack of appreciation and arrogance.

Oh, and by the way, since we haven’t addressed it since the introductory message in this series by Shari Thomas, I thought it might be good for all of us to be reminded that one of those people in your church in need of your very special love—is your spouse. I wish someone had told me what it means to understand and love my wife well—especially during our early church planting years.

If you haven’t read Shari Thomas blog entry that  addressed the tough topic, What I Wish I Had Known About Church Planting from the perspective of the church planter’s/pastor’s spouse then please do. If you have, then please read it again.

Again, I long for you not to make the same mistakes so many of us have made in the past three decades of ministry. Instead, as Bob Logan says, “Go make new, creative, innovative mistakes!” As our beloved Steve Brown would say, “You think about that.”

Steve Childers is the President & CEO of Global Church Advancement, an inter-denominational ministry that provides church planting training, consultations, and resources for church planters, pastors and missionaries throughout the world. Steve has trained Christian leaders from more than 50 countries (curriculum in five major global languages), representing over 200 denominations and mission agencies in 5 continents (& 5 languages). Steve is also an author, Professor of Practical Theology (since 1995) and the Director of the Doctoral program at Reformed Theological Seminary, in Orlando, Florida, where he teaches church planting, missions, evangelism and spiritual formation. To learn more about GCA:

• Browse the GCA Website: http://www.gca.cc
• Join the GCA Cause: http://bit.ly/X5bZC
• See the GCA Blog: http://www.gca.cc/blog/
• Follow GCA on Twitter: http://twitter.com/_gca
• Follow Steve on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevechilders
• Check out upcoming GCA Events: http://gca.cc/Seminar_Overview.htm
• Support GCA: http://gca.cc/Support_GCA.htm

This is the second in a series of blog posts I’m calling, “My Top Ten Mistakes in Ministry (That I Can Share Publicly!). After decades of ministry experience as a church planter, pastor and seminary professor I’ve learned the hard way that most church leaders seem to keep making the same mistakes in ministry. I hope that this series will help some church leaders (including me) stop making the same old mistakes and at least start making some brand new, innovative and creative mistakes!

Last time we began this series with an introduction called, “Ladies First” in which veteran church planter wife Shari Thomas answered the tough question, “What I Wish I Had Known About Church Planting” from the perspective of the church pastor’s spouse. This time we’ll take a brief look at the first of my top ten ministry mistakes.

Mistake #1: Failing to Understand the Importance of How I Define Ministry Success

First, I wish someone had told me how critically important it is to have a biblical view of success in the ministry. I wish someone had the wisdom and guts to have taken me aside, before I went into pastoral ministry, and say something like this: “Do you know that you have a definition of what it means to be successful in ministry and that definition is probably very wrong and dangerous?” I wish someone had explained to me how my definition of ministry success had the potential power of either destroying my ministry and life or deeply enriching it.  But no one said that to me. So I had to learn this lesson the old-fashioned way–by failing.

By anyone’s standards the disciples’ ministry, described in Luke 10, seemed to be a raging success. You know the story. Jesus sent them out “two by two” and commissioned them to heal the sick and proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom. As they spoke in Jesus’ name and ministered to the people, God’s power fell on them in an astonishing way. They were not only surprised but also thrilled and elated. Luke 10:17 tells us, “And the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.’” Their enthusiasm was obvious. God was mightily at work through their lives doing great signs and wonders, just like they had seen done earlier by Jesus.

So the disciples rejoiced. And why shouldn’t they? Even the demons were subject to them, just as they had been to Jesus. But right in the midst of all their elation and rejoicing at how God was working so powerfully in and through them, Jesus spoke these sobering words. He said, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven”(Luke 10:20).

Here Jesus makes clear to his disciples what I wish someone had made clear to me many years ago–that their source of joy in ministry must not be found in what they do for Him but in who they are in Him. Jesus knew that there would soon come a time in all of their ministries when there would no longer be great signs and wonders to encourage them. Instead, there would be great hardships, trials, persecution, and even death for serving in His name. Jesus knew there were times before them when they would feel much more in subjection to the demons rather than the demons being in subjection to them.

At such times Jesus does not want his followers (then or now) to be robbed of joy, so he taught them to find their true source of joy in something other than what most would call “ministry success.” Instead, Jesus wants His followers, even in the face of what many would call ministry failure, to be the kind of people who learn to find deep-seated joy in their knowledge of the Good News of the God’s radical love for them in Christ, (i.e. that “their names are recorded in heaven”.)

In the often difficult and faith-testing trenches of real life ministry (not the unrealistic, Pollyannaish and triumphalistic pictures of ministry often painted by others) it is extremely easy and very normal for church leaders to become discouraged and depressed. Thousands have left the ministry over the years convinced they are failures because of their lack of what many would call ministry success. One of the downsides of my ministry is that I’m sometimes called in to help when church planters and church plants crash and burn. Often these church planters don’t just leave the ministry-they leave the Faith. And every time, without exception, I have discovered deeply lodged in their broken hearts an unbiblical definition of ministry success.

According to Scripture, success before God should be measured primarily in terms of faithfulness to Him. Success has been defined well by Ken and Barbara Hughes, in their excellent book Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, as “faithfully pleasing God with the resources and responsibilities that He has given you.” The authors make the point that in the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30)  Jesus rewarded each faithful man the same—even though one was actually given more than the other and even though one actually produced more than the other.

The main point in this book is not to denigrate the value and necessity of things like thoughtful planning and hard work in the ministry. And the authors are not advocating spiritual pacifism in the name of faith. Instead, they are making a solid case for a biblical view of success that is radically different from the world’s view. It is primarily qualitative not merely quantitative. Its emphasis is more on things like faithfulness, humility, love and relationships than on measurable, objective accomplishments and achievements in the ministry.

God’s Kingdom is an upside-down Kingdom. The Apostle James wrote, “God is opposed to the proud but He gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord said, “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). One of the supreme glories of the Gospel is that it is primarily through weakness that God has chosen to show his strength. This is why the Puritans used to say, “God’s grace, like water always flows to the lowest place, the sinner’s place–the foot of the cross.”

Paul writes,  “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of  the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of  the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of athe world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God”(1 Cor 1:26-29).

If you are like most of us in the ministry today your definition of success is naturally prone to be primarily quantitative not qualitative. Its emphasis is on measurable, objective accomplishments and achievements–things like ”nickels and noses” (church finances & attendance), making a “Kingdom impact”, attaining prestige, power and resources. Without realizing it your  sense of personal worth and identity is inordinately and frighteningly deeply rooted in these things–not in the Good News that “your name is recorded in heaven.”

Oswald Chamber wrote, “God can achieve his purpose either through the absence of human power and resources, or the abandonment of reliance on them. All through history God has chosen and used nobodies, because their unusual dependence on him made possible the unique display of his power and grace. He chose and used somebodies only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources.”

Never forget that your source of joy in the ministry must not be rooted in what you do for Him but in who you are in Him. That’s because there will inevitably come a time in your ministry when you will no longer have all the quantitative accomplishments, power and resources in which you are now illegitimately (and probably unknowingly) finding your true sense of worth and joy. “Do not rejoice in this…but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

Instead, learn to find your true sense of personal worth and joy in the Good News of God’s radical love for you in Christ. Define your success in ministry as “faithfully pleasing God with the resources and responsibilities that He has given you.” Make the primary focus of your ministry things like faithfulness, humility, love and relationships. Then leave the results of your ministry to God.  Failing to understand the importance of how to define ministry success has been one of my top ten greatest mistakes in ministry–that I can share publicly. This failure has cost me greatly. I pray that you will not keep making this same mistake.

Steve Childers is the President & CEO of Global Church Advancement, an inter-denominational ministry that provides church planting training, consultations, and resources for church planters, pastors and missionaries throughout the world. Steve has trained Christian leaders from more than 40 countries (curriculum in five major languages) representing over 300 denominations and mission agencies. Steve is also an author, Professor of Practical Theology (since 1995) and the director of the doctoral program at Reformed Theological Seminary, in Orlando, Florida, where he teaches church planting, missions, evangelism and spiritual formation.

“A new report from The Barna Group, based on interviews with more than 3,000 adults, shows that congregational size is related to the nature of a congregation’s religious beliefs, religious behavior and demographic profile. There are clearly significant differences between the smallest and largest of Protestant churches in terms of the theological beliefs of adherents.”
 

One of the survey results discovered was that most people in the USA attended smaller churches:

“Despite the substantial attention focused on Protestant mega-churches, such congregations draw about 9% of adults who frequent a Protestant church. In contrast, 41% of adults attending a Protestant church associate with a congregation of 100 or fewer adults. An additional 23% can be found at churches of 101 to 200 adults, 18% associate with bodies of 201 to 499 adults, and 9% can be found in churches of 500 to 999 adults.” © The Barna Group, Ltd, 2009

To read all the Barna Group research results click here: http://bit.ly/UiTCR