by Pastor Mark Chin

How exactly are we to measure the success of our church, our ministry, our pastor, our careers, our families, our parenting, or our lives? How are we to know whether a given ministry is on the right track? In 2013, the then chief financial officer of Apple, Peter Oppenheimer used the metric of the iPhone’s market share in the Japan smartphone market to herald the global success of Apple.[1] The success of Apple’s leadership, direction, investment, and path had been validated by its # 1 ranking in sales and market share in a market traditionally resistant to non-Japanese consumer products.

For the past two thousand years – Christendom has frequently used similar metrics to gauge the health and success of a given church or ministry. For years, the Billy Graham Crusades were heralded as a success by virtue of the number of people who walked down the aisles in response to the invitation to accept Jesus into their hearts. The Shepherd’s Conference, a conference for pastors hosted by Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA, recently boasted of having over 5500 men from around the world in attendance. In the history of the church there has rarely been an era where visible size, name recognition, or sphere of influence in the world was not a measure of success – a measurable and objective affirmation that someone must be doing something right. Such trends beg the question – how do we measure the success of our church, our ministries, our marriages, our families, or our relationships? On a given Sunday or in a given ministry, how do we determine whether the outcome of our service has been successful? How did men like William Carey or Hudson Taylor measure the success of their ministries, especially during the difficult early years where resistance was high and converts were few? The sad pattern of Christendom in the West has been its alternation between using the metrics of the world or defensively appealing to the argument that there is no objective measurement for success in the Kingdom.

In John 15, it is worth noting that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is most explicit that God has a very objective metric for measuring success in ministry. The context of John 15 is the night of Judas’ betrayal. Jesus has just finished celebrating the Passover Feast with His eleven remaining disciples. Judas has already departed to arrange His arrest by the soldiers of the High Priest – the Temple Guard. Soon He will be arrested, tortured, and crucified. Yet the primary focus of Jesus, the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep, is not Himself – His comfort or His pain – but rather His beloved disciples. Having washed their feet, having fed them, He now prepares them for the future ministry of the Gospel. One of the ways He does so is by pointing out how God will measure the success of their lives and their ministry as His disciples. “ I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit” John 15:1,2.

As Jesus instructs them on the source and measure of success in ministry, He shows them that it is ultimately the Word of God and NOT the opinion/experience of man that provides the true measure of success for any Gospel ministry. The specific objective metric of success provided by God’s Word is NOT market share, customer satisfaction, or profitability – but rather it is the metric of biblical fruitfulness. A ministry or life that is successful in the eyes of God is a ministry or life that is fruitful in the same way the life and ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s was, is, and continues to be fruitful. “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples,” John 15:8.

This, of course, begs the question: In what way was the life and ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, fruitful? Was it fruitful by virtue of how many people attended His sermons or how much market share the Gospel could claim in the market place of world religions? It helps to see that Jesus’ use of the fruit metaphor in John 15 was not something that Jesus pulled out of thin air. Rather it is an image that Jesus, the Living Word of God, had used repeatedly throughout Scripture, beginning in the very first chapter of Genesis. “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” Gen 1:28.

Frequently, the command, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth …” is interpreted primarily as biological procreation – filling the earth with children. However, such an interpretation is grossly reductionist and modern, failing to honor and account for the God and the context of the first divine command and mandate given to man. The God of Genesis 1 is the sovereign Creator of the universe who has created all things for His glory – the visible manifestation of His infinite goodness and greatness. The context of Genesis 1:28 is the account of God creating man, male and female, in the image of His glory and the account of His blessing man for that purpose, doing so by the authority and power of His inerrant, sufficient, and living Word. Fruit and fruitfulness is the product of God’s will, God’s Word, God’s creative work and His gift of new life, God’s blessing, and God’s command. The fruit that is yielded from God’s blessing and command in our lives is the gift of God that multiplies and fills the earth with the gift of His life and the image of His glory. When we are shown the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, in contrast to the deeds of the flesh, we are shown objective evidences of the presence of Christ’s Spirit and new life in Christ that bears the image of God’s glory. This is the fruit of the cross that God commands us to fill the world with, by virtue of faith in Christ and the new life He alone can give to sinners dying in their sin. It is a fruit that blesses and gives life to others and that, in time, provides the seed for more fruit.

How exactly are we to measure the success of our church, our ministry, our pastor, our careers, our families, our parenting, or our lives? God’s objective measure is the fruit of the cross, the fruit of His Spirit, the fruit of faith and faithfulness that are the gift and blessing of His infinite grace and mercy to sinners like us. This of course, begs the question, what is the fruit of our lives, our marriages, our families, our ministries, and our church?

[1] http://www.cnet.com/news/a-measure-of-apples-success-oppenheimer-cites-japan/ downloaded March 11,2015.