Marks of Discipleship and Effectiveness

I’ve been really fascinated with a conversation happening between Kevin Watson and John Meunier regarding measuring effectiveness in ministry. Here are the basic premises for the discussion:

Numerical growth is one way to measure effectiveness and faithfulness.
Faithfulness and effectiveness do not always result in numerical growth.
Drawing a crowd is not the same thing as gathering a congregation.
Sometimes we can substitute winning praise and approval for faithfulness.
Therefore, how do you measure faithful ministry?

Kevin suggests the means of grace (prayer, searching the scriptures, communion, fasting, and Christian conferencing/community) as a key to discerning whether or not a ministry is both faithful and effective.

On one hand, I totally agree with Kevin. Living the faith is central to my life as a minister. If I am not searching the scriptures daily, meeting weekly with my small group, praying faithfully, etc. then I am not the person I am called to be. When I fail to do these things, I notice more frustration and confusion about the core commitments I have as a Christian and a minister. These practices allow me to know the difference between faithfulness and going through the motions.

However, I think he’s even closer to answering the original question when he mentions trying to be more concrete about what faithful fruit looks like.

Here at Church of the Servant, we have recently started sharing the results of our vision work with the congregation. Included in that work we have a series of “marks of discipleship” that are intended to help us discern whether we’re helping people down the road of discipleship or not. We’re not interested in simply “drawing a crowd.” We want people to actually become disciples.

Here are those marks, which are prefaced with the phrase, “A Servant:”

worships weekly
prays daily
gives faithfully
loves God’s word
embodies God’s love through service
grows through small group relationships
shares their faith with others

Of course we’re careful with how we teach and share this. These are not the way to establish a relationship with God. That only happens by accepting the grace of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, these are several of the places God has promised to show up and meet his people. These are faithful ways to respond to and grow in God’s grace.

Over time, we will use these marks to determine whether or not we are succeeding at the call God has placed on our lives as a community of faith. It’s one thing to just have more people. It’s another thing altogether to have more and more people falling in love with God’s word, connecting in deeper spiritual relationships, and embodying God’s love through service. While it’s a challenge to measure these things, we can actually count the number of people who are using the resources we provide (bible reading plans, small group involvement, missional participation, etc.) to make educated guesses that they are meeting God in these means of grace.

We’re convinced that can lead to both effective and faithful ministry.

Too Busy?

Timothy Larsen has a great reflection on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the danger of self-importance. It centers around this wonderful, yet challenging quote from Bonhoeffer’s Life Together,

The second service that one should perform for another in a Christian community is that of active helpfulness. This means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters. There is a multitude of these things wherever people live together. Nobody is too good for the meanest service. One who worries about the loss of time that such petty, outward acts of helpfulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly.

Larsen discusses this quote in light of the tendency of academics to be “too busy.” The not-so-subtle effect of telling others we are busy is, “announcing that we think we are important and that our time is more valuable than that of most other people.” Unfortunately, this is a tendency of ministers (and probably every other vocation) as well. According to Larsen,

Being worried about the loss of time is not a sign of a healthy awareness that our work is of vital importance. Quite the contrary; it is actually a sign that something is amiss in our character.

I know he’s right. Far too often when people ask me how I’m doing, I reply, “Oh…I’ve been really busy.” If I’m honest, it’s for the very reasons he describes.

I’d ask for your thoughts, but I don’t want to be a bother when we’re all so busy.

The Bodily Resurrection

As an associate pastor, my ministry is far more specialized than it was when I was a solo pastor in rural churches. As a result, I spend the majority of my time teaching in assorted settings. One of the things I love about this role is the way I get to respond to people’s questions about the faith.

When I come across a resource that helps me think through why I believe what I believe and teach what I teach, it’s like discovering a new tool for the toolbox. Thanks to Allan R. Bevere I came across one of those resources this week.

Professor Craig Blomberg, of Denver Seminary, wrestles with the question, “Must I Believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus?” If you don’t want to read the whole article, here’s the summary of his answer,

Without a supernatural, bodily resurrection we are still dead in our sins and of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:12-19). Without Christ’s bodily resurrection we have no bodily resurrection to look forward to. Death ends everything and we might as well “eat, drink and be merry” (in moderation of course, so as not to get sick) and not bother with any of the sacrifice and self-denial that even just following Christ’s cause requires.

If there is no life after death, indeed if there is no embodied life after death as in the new heavens and new earth…then we are idiots to be Christians and should give it up immediately. If there is, on the other hand, then being a Christian makes all the difference in the world—and in the next!

At a conference I once attended the speaker said, “Jesus is alive every time we remember him in our hearts…” to which the more seasoned pastor sitting next to me replied, “Yeah…so is Elvis.” With my friend, I believe that Jesus is more than a memory. I believe in the bodily resurrection. Jesus is alive, whether we remember him in our hearts or not.