Pulpit Reflections: The real definition of success

How do you define success? The dictionary definition is about accomplishing a purpose or being prosperous. 

Most of the time we think of success as involving a good career and lots of income. A successful farmer has new equipment, a nice pickup and lots of land. A successful restaurant fills the seats, makes a profit and gets good reviews from the food critics. 

By that sort of definition, a successful church has lots of people attending, a large budget and several pastors on the staff. The successful pastor leads a successful church, publishes books and maybe gets his sermons broadcast on TV or radio. 

Because of that definition and our desire to be successful, we are shocked by how Paul conducts his ministry. The church in Corinth was having all sorts of problems and really couldn’t get along with each other or with Paul. 

Most church leaders would decide to take their ministry somewhere else, and who could blame them? But Paul does the opposite. He leaves Troas, which he describes as a place of ministry success (2 Corinthians 2:12), because of his concern for the broken church in Corinth. 

Paul demonstrates servant ministry, just as Jesus modelled and commanded. Jesus washed his disciples’ feet (John 13) and told us that the greatest would serve (Mark 10:43-44). Paul gives up his own success for a hurting church.

What if we changed our definition of success? If we defined success less by dollars, acres, or things, and more by the number of people we helped? What if we said success wasn’t about what I could get, but about what I could give? 

Could we have less success for ourselves if it meant someone else could have a little more of their own success?