How should those in ministry pursue success?
Does it even matter?

What is success in ministry?
I have been thinking this through as I have contemplated once more the life of Moses recently.

1. Trusting in your own abilities

Moses began by trusting in his own abilities. Or if not his abilities, at least his instincts. And, why not – after all he “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” (Acts 7:23)

As he grew to maturity Moses made a conscious decision to identify not with the privilege of the palace, but to identify with the people of God: “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,  choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” (Heb 11:24f)

Who was better placed, then, to deliver his people than he was with his forty years of training in the top institutions of the day? So, “when Moses was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.”

This was meant to be more than an individual act coming to the aid of an oppressed fellow countryman. Rather, we are told that behind this one act was something far more significant: “For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand…” (Acts 7:23-25)

But… “but they did not understand.” (v.25)
And Moses had to turn tail and flee.

One’s abilities and capabilities are not unimportant. For example, I wouldn’t encourage a one legged, one armed man to pursue his dream to follow in Paul Hogan’s footsteps and become a rigger on the Harbour Bridge.

There are certain gifts and abilities that one should look for when it comes to leadership and ministry. Though it is significant that the only ability the Bible lists in 1 Timothy ch 3 for a man to be qualified for leadership in the church is that he be “able to teach” (v.2). All other qualifications relate to his character as exemplified in how he conducts himself.

I am reminded of what I wrote some years ago, here :

When it comes to what many look for in leaders in churches today, it seems to me that more often than not it is, not a man’s sanctified character that is the chief concern, but a CV in terms of academic qualifications, or his record of “success” in fulfilling a CEO type role in a church. I don’t despise the need for suitable academic qualifications; I do think, though, that CEO type qualifications measured by “success” are irrelevant, may even be misleading – I have addressed my concerns on this elsewhere where churches look to a business model, rather than a Biblical one, for “running” a church.

But it has been my sad experience to have encountered those who put themselves forward for leadership in the church because of how well they have done in the world. Or who imagine they are wonderful preachers because of their speaking ability, or because they got good marks for essays submitted in their academic pursuits.

While gifts and abilities are not irrelevant in preparation for the ministry, they are not enough. And in any case, I have known more than one who had great confidence in their leadership and teaching skills who were deluded.

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” (Rom 12:3)

2. Trusting in the Lord

So God sent Moses to cool his heels in the backside of the desert for another forty years.

After another forty years, as I observed in my last post, Moses was now ready. Forty years of top military and academic training in an elite school back in Egypt, followed by forty years of hands-on learning to survive in a hostile wilderness, meant no one was better equipped for the job ahead. No one in the whole world was better prepared to lead Israel out of Egypt than Moses: Egyptian enough to confront the Egyptians and Hebrew enough to love the Hebrews.

But Moses is no longer confident in his own gifts and abilities:

• “Who am I that I should shirt front Pharaoh?” (Exod 3:11)
• “Who are You? When I come to the children of Israel… what shall I say to them?” (v.13)
• “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice.” (ch 4, v 1)
• “I am not eloquent, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” (v 10)
• “Please send someone else” (v.13)

And interestingly, neither does God appeal to his gifts and training.

“If he had shown Moses that he was fully qualified for his calling, that would have led Moses to trust in his gifts rather than in his God. The real question was not who Moses was, but who God was, for God said, ‘I will be with you’ (Exod. 3:12a). The exodus did not depend on the competence of Moses but on the presence of God.”[1]

God has just told Moses: “I-AM WITH-YOU.” In that context, for the first and only time, God explains the depth of meaning behind His Name: “I-AM WHAT I-AM.”
The significance of this cannot have escaped Moses.

Moses has just asked, “Who am I that I should shirt front Pharaoh?”
God has said, “Don’t worry about it; I am with you.”

“But who are You?” asks Moses.
Again, God treats the question as, not about identity, but about ability and repeats what He said before: “All you need to know is that I am the God who said I am with you.”

“I am with you, that is what I am. That is enough.”

3. Trust and obey

Yes, that is enough.
But it is not all that God asks of those in leadership.
In the following chapter in Exodus we read what John Mackay records as “probably the most puzzling verses in Exodus.” [2]

And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!” So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision. (Exod 4:24-26)

Only one son is mentioned, so presumably Gershom, the first born, had been circumcised; though Zipporah’s violent reaction here suggests that, having witnessed the first bloody circumcision, she had drawn the line at circumcising Eliezer, her second born. It seems Moses had gone along with her on this. But this was, contrary to God’s clear command to the descendants of Abraham:

“He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations. He must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.” (Gen 17:12-13)

And:

“The uncircumcised male child, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” (v.14)

Perhaps Moses thought it was just a little thing. I mean, how many fellow Israelites had kept up all this ceremonial stuff during their 400 year long stint living in a foreign land? This is such a little thing compared to a whole nation groaning under the yoke of Egypt and waiting to be delivered.
If this means so much to the wife, why sweat the small stuff?

But as John Mackay points out:

“It is not just the covenant status of Moses’ son that is at stake. It is the fitness of Moses himself to be the covenant mediator. He was returning to Egypt to take up his appointed role of representing the Lord to Israel and to Pharaoh. He therefore had to be faithful to God’s requirements. There was to be no discrepancy between what he enjoined to others and how he acted.”[3]

4. Sweating the Small Stuff

Those in leadership must not focus on “success” by cutting corners when it comes to the “small stuff”.

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. (Luke 16:10)

Of course, this is true for all of us:

 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. (1 John 2:4-5)

But those in leadership need to be especially watchful – this, not just because we preach as much by example as by words, but also because the drive for “success” can make us less watchful for how we achieve it. And the more we “succeed” the greater the danger. Lord Acton’s dictum is as true today as it was back then: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Additionally, the influence of the hyper-grace movement today can make us even less watchful.

So, let me wrap this up with a reminder of just some of the “small stuff” that those in leadership, indeed all of us, need to watch out for. I record this, just as much convicted in my own heart of where I fell short in the ministry.
And not that any of this really is particularly “small”; just that it so easily fades into the background when we are pursuing “success”:

• “Husband, love your wife, just as Christ also loved the church.”
• “Dwell with her with understanding, giving honour to the wife, as being heirs together of the grace of life, (or else your prayers will be hindered).”
• “Do not provoke your children less they become discouraged, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”
• “A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition.”
• “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
• “Serve willingly, eagerly; not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”
• “Be self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, not addicted to wine, not a bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy.”
  

In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus didn’t look for how much each one accomplished in returning to his master, but only how faithfully they had used what they were given. Whether one returned five talents, and the other two, each received the same commendation: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”  (Matt 25:21,23)
Faithfulness  – that is success.
Trust and obey – that is faithfulness.

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word,
What a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do his good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

[1] Philip Ryken “Exodus: saved for God’s glory” pp. 92–93
[2] John L. MacKay “Exodus: A Mentor Commentary” p.97
[3] Ibid. p.97