Success? Winning? Progress?
In some areas, this is an easy concept to define. As I have been training for marathons and trying to drop some extra pounds, all I have to do is step on the scale to see if I am “winning.” When it comes to ministry and people, success is a little more elusive.
Not too long ago I was part of a church staff that was engaging Andy Stanley’s book “7 Practices of Effective Ministry” and we spent a good bit of time trying to define the “Win.” That process instigated some healthy discussions regarding our vision, allotment of resources, evaluating success, etc. A typically frustrating conclusion I often came to during my 15 years of staff ministry (youth, worship, discipleship) was that the “win” was nearly always defined in terms of numbers, dollars, programming, etc. I would even say that my own ministry with middle and high school students was more often geared towards being attractional and programmatically impressive than it should have been.
As I contemplate the next 10 to 20 years of my life, vocation, and mission…I am determined not only to define success differently, but to engage in ministry and relationships differently.
Several weeks ago I was sharing this re-orientation towards discipleship and long-term transformation with my friend, Phil. He was asking some questions about what I was trying to accomplish in campus ministry here in Cincinnati. My attempt to articulate this model of ministry never seems as clear or adequate verbalized as it exists in my head. But within a few minutes I think I was able to convey my passion and commitment to pouring myself into a few with hopes to impact many over time.
Another friend in campus ministry is wrestling with the same issue just across the river at NKU. Aaron Klinefelter is director of the Wesley Foundation and you can track with his discussion here. (Isn’t this a great shot of him with his son?!) As Aaron and I discussed the topic of success briefly, I was challenged by something he said which I think is very true. If we don’t define success in our campus ministry, someone else will define it for us. Whether that’s a supervisor, a board, students, or any number of other possibilities…we must be intentional about shaping and modeling campus ministry strategically, ESPECIALLY if we have a definition of success and faithfulness which is not the default understanding of numbers, budgets, and a full calendar.
I especially like Jim Musser’s comments about measuring success by the future. You can read his perspective over at the Heart of Campus Ministry Blog here. Jim makes this statement early in his post,
“The success of any campus ministry is found in what its students are doing five, 10, 15 years in the future.”
That is definitely the approach to ministry I am taking for the next 15-20 years. My goal is to disciple 12 students each year…with hopes that 4-6 of those students really flourish and are spiritually transformed. (Obviously, I would hope for 12 of 12 to succeed…but we all know better than that, eh?!) Ideally, those 4-6 students would be discipled in such a way that they would own the calling of disciple-maker themselves. If that pattern continued for even 3 or 4 years, it would dwarf the “success” of my first 15 years of staff ministry. That’s pretty exciting…and as I have been praying to have maximum Kingdom impact with my life…campus ministry is an answer to that prayer.
I had one of those tearful moments as I drove to campus this morning. An NPR report came on the radio which involved a teen suicide cluster in Palo Alto, CA. You can find the actual report or even listen to it here.
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