Time for a change

I know that this idea isn't original with me, but I think one of our biggest problems in the American church world is what we hold up as models of success. Think about it: What comes to mind when you think of a successful church?

What comes to my mind is a huge church. The guys that are leading huge churches are the ones who get book deals, speaking gigs and church-world press. We celebrate what they are doing. We look to them to learn. They are the epitome of success as we've defined it.

I think it time we change what we think of as successful. I think it's time to change what we celebrate.

I was reading in Jeremiah today and he preached for 23 years with absolutely no result. That's not the kind of resume that's going to get you invited to Catalyst to speak. From our perspective Jeremiah is pretty much a failure.

But I' pretty sure that from God's perspective Jeremiah was a success. And here's why: He was faithful to his call.

I'm not saying that a huge church isn't successful. I just think we need to celebrate more than large groups of people. We need to celebrate faithfulness and obedience.