Without revealing too much personal information, there was a recent event where two family groups were at odds about what to do. One side wanted patience and the other wanted immediate action. One side suggested compassion and the other called for legal action. I was thinking about it, and I realized the two sides had different versions of “success.” Success is something we all think we understand, but few of us stop to analyze. What is “success” in a church? A job? A relationship? A life? It can be surprisingly hard to define. Is a church “successful” if it has lots of money? A business would be, but not a church. Is a family “successful” if it has lots of members? A church might feel like it, but does a family? Success seems obvious, but it’s not.
What makes the difference? Well, success is determined by the goal. “Success” is defined as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” (“Oh … okay … of course it is,” you say.} But do we actually think about that in our drive for success? What is the aim? Not so much. In the above example, “success” meant to one group “a positive outcome,” and to the other, “ending the circumstances.”
What is success for us believers? That seems like a broad question. I don’t think it’s nearly so broad as you might think. There are fundamentals. “Love”—love God and your neighbor—is a fundamental (Matt 22:37-40). “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31) is a good blanket fundamental. Being conformed to the image of God’s Son (Rom 8:28-29) is a great measure of success. Maybe we need to revisit our goals—our definition of success. Maybe we need to improve our aim.
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