While you can measure stock market success, ministry success is unmeasurable. While the stock market indexes can be hedged, ministry outcomes remain a moving target. While the stock market is quantifiable, the ministry is primarily qualitative. Sure, we can count church members, attenders, baptisms, small groups, etc. (and we should measure to some degree), but these “figures” cannot represent life change. We can also try and measure success by observing how someone interacts with fellow church members, say on a mission trip or a Bible study, but we can’t be around him all the time. We don’t know what he’s like at work, at home, in front of his computer late at night, or when he travels—alone with no one watching. How many times will we be shocked that that “great guy” destroyed his witness, marriage, and finances? We can’t see the heart of any person. But that doesn’t stop us from investing our lives into ministry endeavors that do not promise immediate results. A perspective needs shifting.
Ministry then requires me to invest with no real measurable for success, no visible guarantee of heart change, and no promise of present blessing(s) for faithful obedience. Nevertheless, it’s a path upon which many feet have trod. Many of our God’s children have beaten down this mysteriously obscure ministerial path with their sacrifice, and our Lord is the example par excellence.
He went to the cross abandoned, denied, betrayed, and wrongfully accused. Finally, after years of investing in His disciples, only a tiny faithful remained beside Him as He drew His last breath. He died, in the world’s eyes, a failure. The Jews thought they had silenced Him, but the mystery of the cross and resurrection promised a new reality, to their surprise. A truth that Paul articulated in just about every letter. A principle of future heavenly rewards. Whereas, under the Old (Mosaic) Covenant, present blessings and rewards stood promised by covenant to God’s followers who walked in obedience to His Law. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection changed that entirely.
Jesus made a new promise, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you” (John 16:13-14).
Christ’s followers realized the promise of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. As Christ’s followers were praying, the Spirit fell upon them, and they began to speak with various tongues proclaiming the works of God. A new humanity was born, not by the letter but by the Spirit. The apostle Paul writes, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
What motivated Paul’s investment? A future judgment. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).
One song that gets me every time is Thank You by Ray Boltz. The song begins, “I dreamed I went to heaven…And you were there with me…We walked upon the streets of gold…Beside the crystal sea.” While these two individuals were taking in the fantastic experience, someone approached them and proceeded to say,
You used to teach my Sunday School
When I was only eight
And every week you would say a prayer
Before the class would start
And one day when you said that prayer
I asked Jesus in my heart
And then his gratitude:
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am a life that was changed
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am so glad you gave
The heart of this song captures the spirit of ministry.
When I first came on staff at Denton Bible nearly ten years ago, Tommy Nelson told me, “Drew, you will look out ministry, think it’s better than it’s ever been, and it will end up being worse than you can imagine. But, you’ll look out again, and you think it’s worse than it’s ever been, and it will end up being better. You don’t know. You can’t measure. You can only be faithful (to God, His Word, His people, His cause, and His mission).”
The hope of those who minister?
God sees and rewards accordingly.
— May 5, 2022