What is Success?

I think every church struggles with the idea of defining success. Within ministry, I think success can be the ever-elusive, often strived for, ever so friendly killer. I know that sounds crazy, but bear with me.
It is easy to define success within a business. You either make a good product and make money on it or you don't. Your profits and your business grow or they don't. However, it ministry it is not that simple. There is no definite end point. In fact, we will not know the end point until we are with Jesus and see the result. Also, in ministry, just because you have large numbers doesn't mean that you are successful in what you are doing. Likewise, just because your numbers are small doesn't mean that you are not successful.
As I had lunch today, with our worship leader, it clicked that maybe we need to look at "successes" that are a result of our vision rather than the ever-elusive success. "Successes" are the marks on the way that let you know you are accomplishing our vision little by little. It is the person who comes because you let them ask questions and love them even though they don't agree with you. It is loving and serving a community even though they may not show up at your service. It encouraging and assisting a family that are struggling to make ends meet. It is loving and serving even when you may not be loved and served in return.
Jesus didn't gauge his success on the numbers who followed, whether He and the disciples made budget, or whether people "liked" his sermon. He gauged His success on His successes. 12 guys totally changed. A woman healed and accepted back into community. Hungry fed; thirsty refreshed.
Success is not attained in ministry and if you think it has been, you just lost it. Success is simply little successes along the way to fulfilling God's vision, "His dream", for the world.

One Year and Counting

It' s been a year since we started The Quest. Febraury 17, 2008 was our first worship service. It was completely cool and a whirlwind in getting going. I am pretty sure that we broke every rule when it comes to starting a new church. Every book that is out there on "church-planting" told us we were starting out wrong. However, a year later....here we are!
So, we are celebrating our birthday this week. We decided that our celebration would look like what we do best. We brought gifts. We brought gift cards, money, and groceries and hit the Shipp Street community. We prayed and then went to homes to say, "Happy Birthday!" That is how we do it.....we love and serve.
One story sticks out. A gift card was given to one guy and he said ( i paraphrase), "I know you guys. You do so much in our neighborhood. What can I do for you?"
What we are doing is making a difference. The loving and serving in the name of Jesus is making a difference. Keep it up. Because if we aren't loving and serving our community, what is a church there for?

The Cry

When was the last time you cried. Most of the time we think of "crying" when their is pain, hurt or loss. Although people may cry over joy and happiness, the cry we most identify with is the first description.
We cry when we can no longer handle it all. We cry because there is just nothing else that we know to do. We cry because what we are going through and facing is more than we can handle and we can bear no more.
The "cry" is talked about a lot in the Bible. The Israelites "cried out" and God heard their cry. They couldn't take anymore. They had lost their identity, their purpose, and hope. So, they cried....and God heard.
There is a "cry" in our communities that the Church (all churches not one in particular) is often missing. There is so much hurt, pain, loss, oppression in our communities. People are going through a lot. Loss of jobs, loss of homes, loss of marriages, loss of loved ones, loss of direction, and loss of purpose being just a few.
As the Church, we are too often interpreting the "cry" as a "whine". The other thing is that we miss the "cry" because, in too many circumstances, we are supporting the very things that Jesus was against (thanks to Rob Bell on that point). When we don't stand with Jesus against things and instead support them, we don't hear a cry, we hear a whine. Then, we are quicker to want to tell people to get their life together instead of providing a loving shoulder and saying "we will walk with you out of this spot."
This Sunday, we will hear the "cry". This Sunday, we will not tell people to "themselves together", we will instead look and see if we are the one's who need to get ourselves together and in line with what God's Dream really is.
Be sure to come and bring a friend with you.

What does it mean?

What does it mean to "refuse to give up"? For a group of people in Canton, Georgia, it refusing to give up on God's dream for the world. It is looking around our world and our community and realizing that hopelessness, loneliness, fear, addiction, crime, injustice, hurt, separation, hunger, bitterness, anger, destroying creation, and serving self over serving others is not what God had in mind when He created the world and created us.
It's time to be different! Too many churches focus too much on the people who are inside and speak against what is going on outside. Instead, we focus on the outside. We believe that there are two things that we can do better than anyone else; these two actually go together. We can love people and serve them better than anyone else.
We believe in and follow a God who says, "I did not create hopelessness, loneliness, fear, addiction, crime, injustice, hurt, separation, hunger, bitterness, anger." So, where there is no hope, we bring hope. Where there is loneliness, we bring friendship. Where there is hurt, we bring healing. Where there is hunger, we bring food. We simply try to "live His dream".
What do you think is God's dream for the world? Most likely, that is what we are refusing to give up on.