09/28/2026
The last few weeks at North Laurel Church have been truly amazing. God has poured out His Holy Spirit in ways that are beyond the capacity for any human explanation.
After much reflection there is a certain question that has been echoing in my mind. That question is simply, ‘What is success in Ministry?’ In what regards is ministry inside of a church setting supposed to be gauged? Unfortunately, the default setting for most people to make a determination on the success of ministry is strictly based on a numerical calculation. Numbers should not be completely dismissed; however, are numbers the ultimate determining factor to gauge the success of the ministry of a church?
If we as believers in Christ hold firm to the sufficiency of Scripture (as we should) then we should determine the success of ministry upon Biblical standards and not upon mans' opinion. What then does the Bible say?
2 Timothy 4:2 says we should preach ‘in season and out of season.’ That means there will be times in our Church when the fruit of our labor seems plentiful and there will also be seasons when it feels like a drought. What then is the difference? When there is a fruitful season of labor is it because we are laboring well? If there is a season of labor lacking fruit is it because we are not laboring well? The answer to both of those questions is possibly yes but not a definitive yes.
Jeremiah was known as the ‘Weeping Prophet’ and he continually preached to spiritually deaf ears. He never saw the fruit of his labor, but he still labored well. Could we possibly characterize the ministry of Jeremiah as a failure? The Bible does not describe the ministry of Jeremiah in that regard. In fact, it describes Jeremiah as faithful and steadfast (Jeremiah 25:3).
In John 21:22 Peter was jealous of the ministry of John that Jesus called him to do. Peter wanted the ‘success’ that John was going to have. But Jesus responds to Peter by simply saying ‘You follow me.’ There are many Pastors today that will never have a ‘large church.’ And what factors even constitutes for a church being labeled at ‘large?’ But many of those Pastors are faithful men of God serving exactly where God has them planted.
God has not called us to produce results, but rather He has called us to be faithful and the results are completely up to Christ. Matthew 25:14-30 details the Parable of the Talents. Christ was not impressed based on the magnitude of the resources at their disposal. Christ was not impressed by the productivity of their labor. Rather, Christ was pleased by their obedience and faithfulness. Each person in this parable had varying amounst of resources. Each person in this parable had varying amounts of results. But each person in this parable was required to be faithful and obedient with what they had and God blessed their labor with the level of results that would bring Glory only to Christ.
In Luke 16:10 the Bible says that He who is faithful with little will be faithful with much and he who is dishonest with little will be dishonest with much. Ministry success has no Biblical correlation to how much a Church has or even the productivity of the ministries of the Church. Ministry success has everything to do with our faithful obedience to Christ and Christ alone.
There are small churches that are not faithful.
There are small churches that are very faithful.
There are large churches that are not faithful.
There are large churches that are very faithful.
Regardless of the size and scope of your church or ministry simply be found faithful!!!
Send a message to learn more
