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What Does A Successful Ministry Look Like?

What Does A Successful Ministry Look Like?. My aim in these two sessions – tonight, and tomorrow morning – is to put a question to you, and then answer it through the eyes of the apostle Paul The question is: What Does A Successful Ministry Look Like?

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What Does A Successful Ministry Look Like?

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  1. What Does A Successful Ministry Look Like? • My aim in these two sessions – tonight, and tomorrow morning – is to put a question to you, and then answer it through the eyes of the apostle Paul • The question is: What Does A Successful Ministry Look Like? • I’d like you to IMAGINE A ROOM. It’s comfortably furnished, with a plush carpet, and rows of chairs facing the front. There’s an aisle down the middle. At the front of the room is a platform, beautifully lit with uplighters and candles. In the centre of a platform is a table. On top of the table is a box. And in the box: you • Then, over the PA system, comes an MP3 recording of your voice, describing the life you’ve lived. The things you did, the experiences you had, the lives you touched • And my question is: what would that MP3 recording say, if you had had a “successful” ministry? What does a successful ministry look like? PAUSE FOR THOUGHT • Asking it that way focuses the mind. When you die, people talk about what you did, not primarily about what you said was important. So what do you want to be able to say? What is a successful ministry? • It’s important to figure out what success looks like, because otherwise the world will provide an answer for us • DAVE LEVESQUE: “Governments value what they’ve worked out how to measure. They don’t work out how to measure what they value.” Often, it’s the same with churches: ABC (attendance, buildings, cash) • So I want to look at that question through the eyes of Paul • Tomorrow morning, we’ll look at the three ways in which Paul seems to have defined success in ministry • Tonight, I want to focus on one of those ways in particular, from Romans 15:8-24

  2. Romans 15:8-24 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name." And again it is said, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him." And again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope." May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience – by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God – so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, "Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand." This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

  3. Fulfilling the ministry of the gospel • I’ve preached on this passage a couple of times, but in preparing for this conference, I was particularly drawn to vv17-19. This is one of four places in the NT where I see Paul reflecting back on his success in ministry • “In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, to bring the Gentiles to obedience – by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God – so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ” • Paul regarded his ministry as a success, in this text, because he had “fulfilled the ministry of the gospel”, from Jerusalem to Illyricum (Croatia) • He says a couple of verses later that there is no longer any room for him to work in these regions • So, as we all know, he isn’t saying that he has preached the gospel to every soul, let alone that every soul has responded. CORINTH ~ 100 PEOPLE • He means that he has established communities that embody and proclaim the gospel – local churches – in all of these regions and peoples. So he’s off to Spain • So for Paul, ministry success meant preaching the gospel in unevangelised areas, and establishing gospel-preaching and gospel-living churches there. Even if they only had a hundred people in them • Success in ministry, in Paul’s terms, was not about the number of people who came to hear him preach, or how many were part of house churches in a given city, or his budget. He never mentions these things • If you want something measurable, it was defined more by the number of regions of the world – provinces, nations or people groups – who had gospel communities in them, through his work in Christ • Look at this MAP. This is the progress of the gospel today. 13,000 ethno-linguistic people groups. 1,568 of them are unengaged. No Christians. No missionaries • I think Paul would measure his success, in large part, by the progress made in bringing the gospel to those areas

  4. The story of Scripture • Why would that be? Why would Paul understand success in ministry that way? And is that just Paul, because of his specific vocation in God, or should we be appraising success that way as well? • Well, there are three things that drive Paul to reach all the nations (=people groups) of the world, and to see successful gospel ministry in that light: the story of Scripture, the grace of God, and the ambition of an apostle • So we’re going to consider them briefly. First, the story of Scripture. Look at v8. READ • Picture the cross, for a moment. Now imagine everyone has a thought bubble that describes their motivation for doing what they’re doing • The centurion: “I have a responsibility to defend the Empire against insurrection” • The chief priests: “This guy was trouble. It was either him, or our temple and entire way of life” • Cleopas: “We had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel” • What about Jesus? “I want to demonstrate that God is truthful. That when he makes promises, he keeps them. And my Father made promises to the patriarchs that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through their seed. So I’m here, to confirm those promises” • Now, verses 9-12. READ. Paul is clear: promises that all nations will glorify Israel’s God for his mercy come throughout the OT • The last quotation, from Isaiah 11:10-12, says God will bring his people from the four corners of the earth • The prophets kept insisting that this was God’s big idea: to gather a people from all the nations. Not just one, or even just some. All of them • Imagine a THOMAS CROWN art heist: afterwards, nobody says, “only one went missing”. That’s disastrous – because they’re all incredibly precious. And your reputation rests on all of them being saved • This is why Jesus says “all nations” so many times, including at the end of both Matthew and Luke • So Paul, like Jesus, has his view of success in ministry shaped by the story of scripture – God’s promises to the patriarchs and prophets

  5. The grace of God • On hearing that, some might think I was saying every individual Christian should up sticks and take the gospel to unreached people groups. Thousands of peoples are still unreached, so what are we doing here? What am I? • That’s the right question. But now it’s important we understand the second factor shaping Paul’s view of ministry success: the grace of God. Look at vv15-17. READ • Paul, both in v15 and at 1:5, recognises a specific measure of grace (and, in 1:5, “apostleship”) that he received from God, personally, that enabled and equipped him to bring the nations to obedience • Yes, Paul appraised the success of his own ministry in terms of “fulfilling the gospel” from Jerusalem to Illyricum. But he did this because of the grace of God given to him to serve that way • You need grace for world mission. ANDY & JESS McCULLOUGH: learning Turkish, two hour school runs, four kids (Autism and ADHD), tears, etc. You need grace for that. And they’ve been immensely fruitful • Not everyone has been given the grace of God, to preach the gospel in unreached people groups, in the same measure as Paul was. Timothy, Paul’s young apprentice, was called to remain in Ephesus • Of course, he was still urged to “preach the word [=the gospel], in season and out of season” and “do the work of an evangelist” – so it’s not like he was given a “get out of mission free” card! • But the grace of God in Timothy’s life produced different results, and a different type of service in the gospel, to the grace of God in Paul’s life. Similarly with many of those in the churches he established • So although the story of Scripture prompted Paul to understand ministry success as preaching the gospel in unreached regions ... • ... his experience of the grace of God, and the particular role he had to play in God’s global mission, would suggest his definition of success might be slightly differently to others’

  6. The ambition of an apostle • So we looked at the story of Scripture, and it sounded like everyone should define ministry success in terms of reaching unreached people groups • And then we looked at the grace of God, and it made it sound like only a special few should. SPECTRUM • Here’s why I think we need to lean this way: because of the third factor. The ambition of an apostle • The story of scripture is for everyone. The grace of God to go to unreached nations is not for everyone. But if we see things Paul’s way, we will really want it to be for us. We’ll cry, “give me that grace!” • vv19b-24. READ. Notice two things • First, Paul regarded the gospel as fulfilled from Jerusalem to Illyricum (Croatia). He regarded himself as having no more room for work in these regions, because there were gospel-preaching churches there • From Paul’s perspective, the gospel has been fulfilled in Britain. There is no room for any more pioneering work here, since there are churches who can effectively evangelise the nation • But that isn’t true in other places. For Paul, Spain. For us, maybe Afghanistan, or India, or China • So notice the second thing: Paul made it his ambition to preach where Christ was not named, because he didn’t want to build on someone else’s foundation • Britain? The foundation is already there: Augustine of Canterbury, John Wyclif, John Wesley. I want to go somewhere where there is no foundation, to people who have never heard the gospel before • I’m passionate about reaching people who have never heard. I’m not so ambitious for people who have heard, and not listened – or who have listened, and rejected it • I grieve for them. God loves them, and I love them. But I’m ambitious for those who’ve never heard • Paul was passionate about pioneering, despite all the extra suffering it brought with it. He wanted the joy of bringing news to those who had never received it. He loved the idea that he had beautiful feet (Romans 10)

  7. The anatomy of unbelief • So that’s how Paul saw success in ministry. What about you? What about your people? • Well, we/they might say, “I’m just waiting to see if the grace of God for cross-cultural mission emerges in my life”. Or, in rather more unbiblical language, “I’ll go if I’m called, but I’d rather stay where I am” • But I have a theory. I think we’re more likely to hear God speak to us about going to the nations, and more likely to receive his grace for the task, if we want to go, than if we don’t. CURRY vs DUSTING • Rachel and I have an ambition to go to the nations. At the moment, we haven’t received grace for it – but we’re listening out for God to speak to us (even though we know it will be far, far harder than what we’re doing now) • I can’t give you, or your people, the grace to reach unreached people groups. Only God can. But I can help foster an ambition • Consider, for example, the reasons in scripture that people don’t believe the gospel, and how God responds • They aren’t prepared to humble themselves (Pharisees). God confronts • They don’t want to sacrifice wealth, sex, status, etc (rich young ruler). God comments (sadly) • They think the cross, and hence Christianity, is foolish (1 Cor 1; HITCHENS). God confounds • They’re saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords” (FR. REV). God laughs • They’ve never heard (Rom 10; BILLIONS). God sends • God is deeply compassionate about those who have never heard the gospel, and he sends us to them • So it’s good for us to have an ambition – personally as leaders, and for our churches – to reach unreached people groups with the gospel of Jesus

  8. Response • I began this session by asking the question: what does a successful ministry look like? • If I said so-and-so was a “very successful church leader”, what would you imagine? • A large auditorium, filled with people? • Or a church that had sent church planters to three unreached people groups? • We’re going to consider a few more aspects of ministry success, as Paul saw it, tomorrow • But may we press on, as leaders, with the Great Commission ringing in our ears – “make disciples of all nations” ... • ... and with our vision dominated by the massive, multiethnic multitude of Revelation 7: ‘After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”’ • PRAY

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