The Salty Peanut Gallery

Dan Phillips raises an interesting issue in his Pyromaniacs post. Dan writes:

…every human endeavor has ways to measure success right now (or shortly), and has an identifiable and quantifiable goal.

Suppose a pastor preaches his Biblical convictions and people (attenders or even colleagues) turn on him. Has he failed? Or succeeded? How can he know?

Dan makes a great point, one in which, as he says, there are no simple answers. I think too this issue is compounded by the fact that we pastors tend to measure our success against that of the mega church “gurus” that have, as Michael Spencer puts it, “missional street cred”. In so doing we tend to get overly enamored with numbers. But here’s the thing. If numbers are the measure of our success then all we’ve really done is reduce church ministry to marketing strategies. If good marketing is all that is needed to be successful in pastoral ministry than who needs the Holy Spirit? Yes, “every human endeavor has ways to measure success”, but that’s the real issue isn’t it? Successful pastoral ministry isn’t a human endeavor at all is it?

It’s interesting who they let speak at pastor’s conferences these days. Regardless of your denomination, I dare say you won’t find very many pastors of small unheralded congregations being invited as the keynote speaker at their national convention. Only the brightest and the best are afforded that honor, men with real credibility when it comes to being “missional” (We don’t need no manifesto!). So the question is, what qualifies someone as a bona fide expert in evangelism. Michael Spencer has a few suggestions:

There are three kinds of credibility that evangelicals should examine very closely these days. Those are the credibility that comes from your web presence, your conference presence and your ability to get published. These three things do not mean you know what you are doing on the ground, that you have any cred when it comes to building missional community or that anyone should listen to you. They don’t mean you are telling the truth or should even be speaking. They mean you have a platform. That’s it. Beyond that, someone should look deeper.

Having a church is another claim that should be taken with a grain of salt. Some gurus have churches so big, multiplying in so many ways that they could claim to be making converts by the kind of toilet paper they are using in their facilities and it would have cred. Hundreds and thousands of Christians coming to your church so they get to say they go to the “cool” church should give you no cred at all as being missional.

It’s unfortunate how much emphasis we place on human endeavor when it comes to the credibility of a man’s pastoral ministry. Those who demonstrate an identifiable and quantifiable measure of success are deemed credible to tell others how they can be missional. But as Spencer explains:

I really don’t see any value in telling someone else how to be missional with anything other than a lot of humility. It would be arrogant for me to say that the converts are anything other than the work of the Holy Spirit, since nothing we do has any spiritual power apart from God himself.

The apostle Paul wrote. “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Galatians 6:14). Last time I checked the work of the Lord is still being done by the Lord. We don’t save souls. We are merely the instruments God chooses to use. That’s it. We’re just along for the ride. The only credibility that anyone might have is in giving testimony to the great things that God has done. How ‘bout a conference speaker that can do that?

Send up a prayer today for the Steven Curtis Chapman family. Yesterday evening a tragic accident took the life of their youngest daughter, 5-year-old Maria, as she was playing in the drive along with some other children. Maria’s teenage brother was driving the family SUV down the long, gravel driveway of their rural home west of Franklin, Tennessee and apparently did not see the girl playing in the area when he struck her with the car. Maria was transported by helicopter to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Maria, the youngest of six children, was one of three Chinese girls brought into the family through adoption. Longtime supporters of international adoption, Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, had founded Shaohannah’s Hope, an organization to help families who want to adopt. During his most recent concert tour Chapman was promoting a campaign called “Change for Orphans” in which audience members were encouraged to bring their spare change to the concert to assist a local family with adoption.

John Styll, president of the Gospel Music Association had this to say:

“I don’t know of anybody who loves his children more than he does and is so committed to the adoption concept, and to lose one, no matter what the circumstances, is heartbreaking beyond all comprehension. He talks about his kids all the time. That’s his life. His kids are more important to him than music, that’s for sure.”

May the God of all comfort grant the Chapman family His grace and peace in the wake of this tragic loss.

If you’d like to meet Maria and express your condolences:

In Memory of Maria
A special blog set up for you. We invite you to share your condolences here. The Chapman family is so grateful for the incredible outpouring of love and support at this difficult time.