Redefining Church Success

By Marcel Schwantes

Many church pastors and administrators define success by measuring things like attendance, membership and tithing, which is noble on their part to ensure their institutional survival and that the mission is carried out. But there's a greater neglect--assessing a church's spiritual growth. Why is it that churches don't naturally look at more fundamental things like anger, contempt, honesty, integrity, and the degree to which lust, addiction, abuse and broken relationships are sabotaging the lives of church families?



Churches don't gauge such qualities in their members because these are not easy things to talk about. If you're a church leader, there's nothing to brag about here. If it doesn't involve the institutional measures of success, like how many seats filled your last prophecy seminar on Daniel and Revelation, and how that led to five baptisms, it's not good PR.

The other reason it's difficult to assess a church's spiritual growth and know if they are being effective at making disciples, in my opinion, is that people must, first of all, be willing to be assessed in these ways! Who is willing to admit these things? This may mean a church going through a cultural shift with a clear commitment to discipleship. Until a church system buys into a version of Christianity that includes life in the Kingdom of God as a disciple of Jesus Christ, that system will continue to miss the mark in producing good fruit.

Of course, for those leaders who are willing to engage in such empowering endeavor, I recommend a good assessment tool to measure spiritual formation, like Christian Life Profile and Monvee.com. But wait! The most effective way for these tools to be used has to be in a community setting where a group of members comes together around a vision for real discipleship. They have to be people who are committed to grow, change, and learn under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If you're a pastor reading this, I would caution against administering these tools like employers administer personality tests. People being assessed have to WA NT to be assessed. If they are not sold out on this vision for spiritual formation, spare the headaches and do not assess them.

Few churches that I know or have been a part of in the Adventist system adapt this model of discipleship for measuring success. They are usually vibrant, healthy churches, and active in their community. They also have strong leadership. On the flip side, the persons I feel sorry for the most who get lost in the system are the pastors who carry institutional baggage. They often get beat up by inheriting or managing a toxic congregation, or become victimized by obsolete church models of attraction conveyed to them by their training or experience. Many simply lose hope and change careers to keep their sanity.

What can pastors do to change this unfortunate dynamic? Well, they can start by changing their definition of success--one rooted in spiritual terms. The first step is modeling the behavior by showing how you lead as a disciple, who is also being led by the Disciple Maker. In other words, that success is determined not by numbers or strict adherence to doctrines or beastly seminars, but by the vitality of a pastor's own spiritual life and his capacity to pass it on to his congregation.

This is when one must face the mirror. When pastors don't have rich and ingrained spiritual lives defined by their own discipleship and a healthy relationship with Christ, it's a hard and near impossible transfer process. So they're left with a job defined by managing ministries and institutional activities. They buy into the belief that success is about getting more people to engage in those ministries and activities.

Pastors, and those they lead, need to be set free from that belief first, before having a clear commitment to discipleship and spiritual formation.

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Marcel Schwantes is a professional certified Life Coach specializing in leadership, performance, spiritual integrity and relationships. He coaches and trains individuals, groups and organizations across the country. He can be reached here.