Fruitfulness and Faithfulness
This is an except from Fail: Finding Hope and Grace in the Midst of Ministry Failure by J.R. Briggs
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Though not as rigid as a success-driven metric of ministry evaluation, health and fruitfulness are how we measure success. Instead of the modern metric of the three B’s - buildings, bodies and budget - it is biblically measured in what some have called the three F’s – faithfulness, fruitfulness and fulfillment. Numbers, for sure, can reveal health (or lack of it). If a church has an average attendance of 200 for the past two years and all of the sudden drops to around 25 people in the next few months, it may reveal a large area of concern or spiritual disease. However, there may be other factors. Stories are important. Is fruitfulness evidenced in the stories of what God is doing in our congregation? Are people being formed and transformed by the work of the Story of God in their lives? Where are people serving, what are people learning, how are people being a blessing to others? Where are people hearing from God and how are they responding to His promptings in their lives?
In addition to stories, personal knowledge and experience can be considered as an important factor. What has happened in other congregations in the past? How have we handled this in the past? As a pastor, though the numbers may not show exponential growth, you can know God is alive and well in your people by the way they interact with God and each other. Conversely, you may be growing in numbers but look out over your congregation on a Sunday and sense an uninspiring spirit where people seem spiritually flat week after week. The numbers may reveal growth on paper, but deep in your soul you know that people are not growing in their intimacy and fruitfulness as followers of Jesus. We may even have rhythm and suggested forms we can provide for people to participate in. It is not a sure-fire fool-proof fix of the congregation, but they can guide in the direction of health and fruitfulness.
To use a previous analogy of gardening, vinedressers learn how to prune back grapevines, gardeners know when to harvest and farmers know how much to water. There is a delicate balance of using methods, forms and rhythms in ministry without learning to trust in them as sure-fire fixes that manipulate growth. Despite all skill, experience and knowledge, a doctor and a farmer are limited. This is probably the most difficult and most necessary step in the process: trusting in the work of the Holy Spirit to do his work in the lives of His people on his timetable. We must trust the Spirit to do his work. It is, after all, His field and we are called to be his workers.16
Many of us long for a formula or an equation to fruitful ministry. Fortunately for the kingdom (and for our own good as well), there are none to be found. As we mentioned, though no formula, faithfulness is needed. As desirous as a formula for ministry success sounds, it is a gift from God that it does not exist, for a formula can easily become an idol in the heart of the pastor. Sure-fire equations for success, though some try their best to offer it to desperate pastors, but they are not authentic. They are nothing more than religious chemicals used to sprinkle on churches; they will not last. They can lead to trusting in methods more than in the Maker of heaven and earth. This pastoral evaluation metric of fruitfulness requires trusting the Spirit further and deeper than we did last month. This is a gift of God’s grace in the life of the pastor, though it is costly.
To talk of developing a robust and accurate theology of failure, we must talk about paradox, for without paradox, failure cannot be understood appropriately. To follow Jesus means to answer his call to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him. Dietrich Bonhoeffer starkly reminds us of our call to faithfulness: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” On a similar note, a pastor friend of mine likes to say regularly, everone wants to follow Jesus, but no one wants to die. Current culture can’t fathom such a decision. It is an invitation to failure on the deepest level. It is beyond radical; some might say it is ludicrous. When we live as faithful followers of Jesus, we are bound to fail - and yet, this is a good thing. Failure can be a gift. Failure can be grace. Failure yields hope. It is not contradiction; no, it is paradox. As Nouwen so simply and profoundly reminds us: “The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus?”