In September, much of the Christian world was shocked to hear that highly sought after Speaker, best-selling author, and mega church pastor Francis Chan stepped away from the limelight. He resigned his position at the church he pastored, took his family and left for Asia. There was no infidelity, no financial crisis, no secret sin, no reason to quit at all. Except for one - Chan came to the place where he believed he was not being absolutely authentic to who God made him to be.
It is interesting for me as a pastor and as someone who has been in and around mega churches for nearly 15 years. The idea of success in ministry often gets defined much the way that the world would define it - grow the church large, get noticed because your church is large, get the chance to speak all over the country because your church is large, write a book because your church is large, and everyone knows the testimony of what God did in your life - because your church is large.
Aside: A couple of thoughts - 1. Romans 12:2 says to not be conformed to the patterns of this world; 2. Paul wrote that He had planted, Apollos watered, but God makes things grow. Which would imply that first, our measures of success are not correct. And second, a large church or a large move of God should not give the pastor more exposure, it should only bring glory to God.
So, at the pinnacle of his profession, Chan left everything that we would see as successful to pursue a life that most would shy away from as a life of tragic under use. I think that for me and for you, it bears considering whether we would be willing to do the same. Would you leave a very lucrative career of speaking and writing and influence and recognition to follow the Lord into relative obscurity? And even deeper, how would you know it was the Lord? Or is it some sense of mid-life crisis?
No doubt, people will have all kinds of varying opinions about why and what Chan has done. It is not mine to judge, but what I do think about is God's definition of success. I think that before we define what success is, we need to make sure that it aligns with God's perspective on all fronts. So that, first, we are not conforming to the world's patterns for success, and second, when God does things, He gets the full glory for His work and we take none of it.
As of today, these are my jumbled thoughts on success - and tomorrow, I reserve the right to completely disagree, but I think it helps me keep perspective...
First, God never asked us to be big church pastors, nor conference speakers or writers. God never defined success by the size of the congregation at all. Not that there is anything wrong with big churches. I think too many people are guilty of throwing the baby out with the bath water. "if it isn't about numbers, then we should reject anything with large numbers as unspiritual." No, in fact there are lots of advantages to being in a large church. Multiplied resources, multiplied impact, and multiplied celebration of God's work to name a few. If that is the station God has called you to, then by all means attack it with vigor.
But maybe what Chan did smacks at something deeper. Maybe the issue is that faithfulness to God's design and intent for you is more important than the size of your church. before you readily dismiss this as a trite conclusion, take time to consider how deep this rabbit hole goes in your own life... How much of your life is structured to simply bring glory to God? Or is it to bring comfort or your definition of security to you? Which leads me to my second conlusion...
Bigger is not always better, but it is always more responsibility, more pressure, more critique, more burden. Now, no doubt God makes some people to take ground in these arenas and succeed, but I am not sure that this life is the goal. God's glory should be the sole focus of our life and we can only truly bring glory to Him when we are truly fulfilling our God given design and in our God given environment. And tandem to that, it is quite possible that when we are fully in the center of all that God has for us, only He can be glorified. We could take no glory for ourselves, real or perceived.
Lastly, sometimes, fully bringing glory to God means that we lay down as a choice and a privilege, the glory that people have tried to ascribe to us. Paul and Silas tore their clothes and wailed when people tried to put them in the place of God. I wonder if we would react as strongly.
May we always be fully faithful to the design and tasks that God has laid out for us. May we always believe that His glory is all that matters. And may we willingly lay down our own glory so that the testimony of the church is one of a Great God.
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