Measuring Success

We live in a culture obsessed with numbers—sales, likes, views, followers, wins, etc. And the higher the number, the more successful one is perceived to be. Yet numbers can be deceptive. Take a company like Enron, which in the 1990’s was a wildly successful Texas energy company, or so it seemed. However, in the early 2000’s, it was revealed that their perceived success was based on some highly unethical accounting. They soon went bankrupt. 

In the church world, numbers also rule supreme—number of attendees, number of conversions, number of campuses, number of staff, etc. All are markers of success. I remember talking with a colleague in the midst of the worst part of the pandemic, that he was hearing from pastors how excited they were about livestreaming their services. There attendance was going way up, sometimes double or tripling their normal in-person attendance. For some of them, they may have had visions of “megachurchdom” in their futures. 

In my many years ministering to college students, we had many students from churches that would be described as successful churches. Yet, most of them were not well-grounded in the faith; they didn’t have a working knowledge of the Scriptures; they couldn’t articulate the gospel; and they had no missional vision for their lives. One student’s comment to me was typical: “My plan for college was to get my degree and make some good Christian friends.” 

Yet, the churches from which these students come were considered successful because they had large numbers attending due to good preaching, and they had various programs to offer children and youth, which were also well attended. But when you drill down into the statistics and the lives of young people involved in these churches, as I did in researching for my book, Letters from Downstream,  a different story emerges. High school graduates are leaving the faith in large percentages once they are on their own. The ones who remain often have a very shallow understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, if they are true Christians at all. Some just get involved in a campus ministry for the same reason as the student I mentioned earlier. They want to have good, moral friends. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, but following Jesus involves much more than just living a moral life. 

Yet, I can almost guarantee that the churches and youth groups from which these students come consider themselves fairly successful. Why? Because they have the numbers to prove it. Number of kids involved. Number of kids going on mission trips, and to camps, conferences, and concerts. 

I long had the opinion, and emphasized this to my ministry staff, that successful campus ministry is not determined by what is happening currently, but what is happening in the lives of the students five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years after they have graduated. Are they still walking with Jesus? Are they living missional lives? Are they using their spiritual gifts for the Kingdom? If the vast majority are, then we can say our ministry was successful. 

Success in ministry is not measured in numbers but in lives transformed. And the authenticity of that transformation is determined over time and in substance. It cannot merely be measured by the number of times a person shows up to an activity or event over a period of a few years.  And if we are content measuring our success in numbers, then it is likely we will shortchange discipleship; exactly what I think is happening in the majority of American churches. 

Think about it. Jesus spent three years with only 12 young men. Over this time, he trained them and then he sent them out. In readings Acts, we see the tremendous success of his approach. And today, even we are the beneficiaries of his discipleship of these young men. By any measure, Jesus was successful. And so were the Apostles. Not because of the numbers, but as the result of transformed lives. 

This is how the Church should measure success, and the question we all should be asking of our own local church is, how many lives are being truly transformed through an intimate relationship with Jesus? This is really all that matters for eternity.

© Jim Musser 2022 All Scripture references are from the New International Version, 2011.