- How do you know if your life is successful?
- How do you get objective feedback?
- How do you know which goals to set for yourself?
- How do you measure success?
- Where does God fit into the picture?
(op-awk-all-oop'-toe) To uncover, lay open what has been veiled or covered up. Disclosing ideas about God, church, Scripture, politics, culture, and, in the end, myself.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Questions: Success
I have a moderately-high need for achievement, and this was relatively easy to fulfill in college (study hard, get an A) But I'm finding that pastoral ministry is a profession with few benchmarks to measure ones success, and I've observed that focusing on those benchmarks is usually self-defeating (e.g. chasing baptisms at the expense of discipleship). On this topic I have more questions than answers.
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I used to believe that I am leading a successful life if I had this great-paying job, was driving a flash car and living in a penthouse apartment.
ReplyDeleteThen I ended up working in a bank and realised that achieving that kind of "success" would mean giving up almost everything I believed in.
Success to me now means having the time to spend with loved ones, having the energy to seek a relationship with God, being able to contribute to the world by working in a place without the sole purpose of making a profit, but most importantly, being happy, contented and knowing that your life is right with God.
I read a recent study conducted by Sermoncentral.com across denominational lines. They asked over 1700 pastors to rate different things that often or sometimes frustrated them in the ministry. Here are the abbreviated results:
ReplyDelete95.1% Seeing little response or life-change in the listeners.
90.1% Lack of sermon preparation time.
87.9% Finding relevant illustrations.
86.3% Keeping the sermons fresh each week.
85.5% Getting practical applications in my sermons.
80.3% Lack of attention and connection from the listeners.
76.6% Deciding what to preach on week to week.
I don't know how you will relate to this, but I also passed it on to my local pastor.
That list pretty much summarizes the main frusterations we face with the preaching aspect of ministry. But I think in a broader sense one is bound to get frusterated if one doesn't even have a sense of direction or purpose in ministry.
ReplyDelete(Is that me? Well, from time to time yes.)