What Does Success Look Like?

From the time I was a young boy I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the Olympic Games on television. It is amazing to watch these extremely gifted athletes from around the world give everything they have to win a medal and have the privilege to stand on the medal podium watching the flag of their home country raised into the air. The fact that many of these athletes have trained for four years or more for the opportunity to represent their countries in the Olympic Games makes the games even more intriguing. Having been born and raised in northern Minnesota I have a special place in my heart for the Winter Olympics, but I enjoy the Summer Olympics as well. (It may have something to do with the fact that the USA wins way more medals in the Summer Games than in the Winter Games.)

As I have watched the Olympic athletes strive to win gold, silver or bronze metals this week I've found myself reflecting about what "winning" looks like in the missions endeavor in Africa to which I have committed my life. The Olympic athletes know what winning looks like in each of their sports and have dedicated themselves to pursue it with sacrifice and great commitment. 

I'm not so sure that we in missions circles know that success looks like in our specific situations. We talk about evangelism, church planting, disciplemaking, leadership training, holistic ministries, etc., but when it comes to what it actually looks like "on the ground" in various situations I'm not sure we often have a clear picture.  Unfortunately, this isn't just an issue in the missions world.  After 25 years in pastoral ministry in local churches in the USA I'm not sure that most church leaders have a good handle on what success would look like in their context either.

Several months ago I had a conversation with Bob Moffitt, president of the Harvest Foundation,  Bob is also the co-founder of the Disciple Nations Alliance and the author of several books including one with the provocative title, "If Jesus Were Mayor." During our conversation Bob said something that really got me thinking.  He said, "Kevin, we talk a lot about how many churches have been planted and how many disciples are being made, but I think the question we ought to be asking is what kind of churches are we planting and what kind of disciples are we making!" I couldn't agree more!

In many of the places where I travel in Africa churches were planted long ago, but unfortunately there is little real evidence of genuine Gospel transformation in the community or in the culture. In fact, in some of those places Is-lam is making aggressive in-roads. This certainly isn't the kind of "success" that we are looking for!

What is the problem? There are multiple things that we could point to, but I believe a great deal of it is due to lack of clear understanding of three things: a truly Biblical worldview, the breadth and depth of the Gospel, and the implications of the Kingdom of God in the world today. Over the next several blog posts I will share some of my thoughts on these three key issues. I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on these things, too.