I was thinking today whether I am living a “successful” life and whether our church is a “successful” church.
Success can be easily defined if we were doing well financially, or if our church has thousands in attendance. You look at that and automatically think, “They are a success.”
What if you are financially struggling, or the church is dropping in attendance? Are you “failing” and not being “successful”?
I think when the numbers look good, we tend to rely on that and introspection at the deeper issues are neglected. When the numbers are not there, you would then be forced to evaluate the essence of who we are, why we are here, what we here for, and those types of questions.
Right now as our bank account is slim, I am forced to evaluate what success really means. What am I living for? What makes me content? What does a successful life look like? Instead of relying on our bank account to bring me security and happiness, I find that I have plenty of joy in focusing on relationships with people, being with my family, and developing myself in new ways. Money is not a requirement for those at all.
In the same way in the church, as our numbers are low, we are forced to find new ways of ministry. We are finding ways to engage more people in the work of the ministry, in fellowshipping with people we didn’t mingle with before, and in trying out new areas of ministries we didn’t try before.
Success comes in many forms. Sometimes a successful life is not the obvious. When we dig deeper, we find meaning in areas of life we had under-utilized.