Ramsay Customer Rule #5: Don’t let success go to your head. Don’t become complacent. If a restaurant is to succeed it must always be improving, innovating, taking risks, learning, expanding, and putting a fresh spin on food. A successful restaurant never rests on its laurels.
How do you measure success in congregation? For some ambitious pastors and their people, success is measured according to numbers: increase in membership, higher worship attendance, growing financial giving and mission support, more programs, more committees, more ministries, more children and teens, more diversity, more, more, more. But more is not always better. And you can’t measure faith, relationship, and love…at least not in a way that doesn’t cheapen it. Jesus seemed to get a lot done with a congregation of twelve. Imagine what we can do.
At first, I thought that apart from mega-churches and televangelists, success in numbers isn’t so much a problem for those of us in the sinking mainline denominations. But I’m wrong. Success can go to our heads…because we can fool ourselves into believing that we are doing the work of the kingdom based on ‘results’ (however we choose to measure them). Ha, moved the baptismal font without much flack! Oh, we have a growing 30-somethings ministry! Yea, finally banished the organ for a band! What an excellent, up-to-date and interactive website! Follow our congregation on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, LinkdIn, Tumbler, Google+…
But success can potentially lead to complacency. We’ve got it all! We did it! We built it (the building, the worship service, the program, the outreach, the website), now we just need to sit back and let them come! Complacency makes us lazy. And pastors can be the worst. And when the wax wings melt and we drown in the sea, the converse of Rule #5 becomes a reality—failure gets to our heads. And we’re done.
What to do?
# 1) Forget numbers. Church isn’t really about numbers. Yes, the book of Acts will say this many were there and that many, but one man died on the cross. There, that’s a number. And when two or three are gathered in that man’s name, he’s there. That makes three. Move on.
I’ll give you two examples where I can measure success (but don’t worry, I won’t let it get to my head…and for at least one I’ll explain why).
First, several years ago I visited a new member of my congregation who had unexpected bypass surgery. As we were sitting in his living room, he showed me a long line of get-well cards that surrounded the entire room—across the mantle, on top of the TV, the coffee table, the stairs. I mused that he must have a lot of friends. Actually, he admitted, the cards came from people at our church. There in that man’s room we sat, literally surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. That is church.
Second, I have a congregant whose neighbor was losing his house to foreclosure. She had the means to buy the house at auction and rent it back to the same neighbor until he and his family could get their affairs in order and move on with dignity. She eventually sold the house. She didn’t do it to make money, but to help a neighbor in need. No incense. No offering plate. No hymns. And yet, that is church.
(Now for the disclosure: The first story is a success in by book. But I can’t let it get to my head. That particular member left my congregation for one that he felt better enabled him to fulfill his calling as a Christian. My congregation might see this as a failure on our part, if we measured our success by numbers. But we can’t measure our ministry by the number of names on our roster. This man and his congregation were touched in a profound way. It is true. It is church. And it’s a damn good story).
#2) Take risks and don’t be afraid to fail. If the church is going to be a success it must be evolving, reforming, and in constant dialogue with the people and cultures that comprise it. Congregations must support pastors in experimenting with ideas and possibilities, and be as forgiving when she fails as they are overjoyed when she succeeds. Without risk we will stand still, and the world will pass us by. We will become irrelevant (and relevance is extremely important…when church doesn’t matter to people, then what’s the point?).
The first disciples and early church members were willing to risk their lives (their LIVES) in order to follow the way of Jesus. The least we can do is be willing to fail.
I fail all the time. I try crazy ideas, new visions, and risky changes. Sometimes things work wonders. Sometimes they bomb miserably. Several years ago I took my congregation on a journey that had amazing results by the numbers—we grew in membership, participation, excitement, and outreach—but that journey went a little too far. I failed, and for a while was a little gun-shy to try new ideas. But I also learned. And so did the congregation.
Remember, Good Friday is always followed by Easter morning.
#3) I have no number three. Remember, you aren’t supposed to judge success by numbers. Nor let it get to your head.
If a congregation is to succeed, it must always be improving, innovating, taking risks, learning, expanding, and putting a fresh spin on faith. A successful congregation never rests on its laurels. Don’t let success go to your head. Don’t become complacent.