This is the second post in a series of posts as I complete a directed studies course this semester. You can see the last post here.
This semester, I’m researching and writing a paper with one of my professors. I’ve chosen to focus on answering the question,
How can pastors of Southern Baptist Churches lead their churches through change (with relatively little conflict) to become more successful in fulfilling the Great Commission?
I’m excited about this semester and the opportunity to spend countless hours researching something extremely practical for my future, (and I’m floored by God’s providence in working this out, considering I go to a public university!), but before I can move forward with my research, I have to establish what “success in fulfilling the Great Commission” actually is.
…For the purposes of my research…success in the Great Commission is essentially organizing the church in such a way that the Gospel of Christ is so central to its mission that everything it does is Great Commission work.
This week I’ve kind of revised my definition a little bit. These are some things that have changed.
First, I realize that some of the Church’s ideas of success have gotten skewed based on the definition of success in the wider culture. For example, successful businesses are the ones that make the most money by having the largest customer base, have the highest paid executives, and are the most emulated in the market.
Unfortunately, I think that concept of success is often adopted by churches. Churches view success as synonymous with having big buildings, large staffs, and a packed church. Small churches wonder why they aren’t having as many people on Sunday as the big church down the street.
Instead of determining a church’s success by comparing it to other congregations, I suggest we should instead see how faithful the church is to meeting its own stated goals. These goals might be unique to each congregation, and should be the central focus of everything that church does.
Second, some churches will see the continuing decline of their congregations as an obvious sign that they are doing something wrong. They may choose to make their entire focus gaining new members. If after six months they haven’t added new members, they are unsuccessful.
That sounds good until you come to a mission statement that strives for something intangible. To show you what I mean, consider the church where I serve: Our mission statement says that we exist to “develop dedicated disciples of Jesus Christ that have a heart for God, a heart for people, and a heart for service.”
How would we measure this? How do we determine if the people God has entrusted to us are growing in their love for Him, for others, and for serving the world around them?
I say we measure our success to our goals at Cottage Hill by keeping track of how many people are serving. Having 80% of our congregation serving isn’t a great indicator of spiritual health, but when paired with Biblical, Gospel-centered preaching on Sundays, and Bible-centered small groups, it can give us an idea of how faithful we are to shepherding the believers God has entrusted to us.
