Is It Possible to Gauge Spiritual Results?

After 40+ years of practicing Christianity I have the same problems with one issue as I have had from the start. My struggles with this became more acute when I was in formal church leadership roles, such as elder and then minister. Either I have an inherent confusion concerning this, or the church body does, or both of us. After all this time I’m still uncertain. The conflict I’m referring to is results (or success).

Without question the success that the church seeks is spiritual success. I can’t imagine anyone in the conservative, fundamentalist mindset denying that. The problem is this: how is it measured, how do we know (or can we know) if it’s been reached or if we’re even on the path towards it?

Why is the measurement so difficult? Spiritual growth and activity are invisible. All we can see and feel and perceive is the material world; we cannot perceive the spiritual world. So, the church leadership looks at certain physical behavior and attempts to quantify it.

Attendance has been the primary touchstone of success, both for the individual and the church as a body. If people attend, then that is good and is a measure of success. The more attendance, then the more success. Involvement is a second measure of success. This is voluntary activity in the church that is beyond attendance: teaching, music, general helping out, whatever. When a person volunteers to serve, this is considered good and is also considered as personal growth for that person.

Giving money is another measurement, though not as much anymore. I think there’s a reason for that. In the churches I’ve been involved with, the individual Christian’s giving was not known; so, the per capita amount was used as the measurement. The average income per family for the area was usually known; and a reasonable estimate could be calculated how much the giving was above the norm. For years the average charitable giving in the US has been 3% for believers and unbelievers. Again, in the churches I attended and had inside information, the estimated giving for believers was also 3%. Essentially, after years of preaching on giving and urging people to give back to the Lord’s work, there has been no significant difference in the average of what believers give versus unbelievers. The pattern now is meeting general budget, that is, the true operating budget. If salaries, utilities, mortgage payments, etc. are met, little is said about giving. If a default begins to occur, then a sermon or rally is called to meet the shortfall. Giving (particularly tithing) is not looked at in the same way as a measurement of success as it was 30 years ago.

Why have I had and still have such a struggle with success or the measurements of success: attendance and involvement? Neither of those (or any other physical measurement) is proof of spiritual growth. Maybe growth is occurring, maybe it isn’t. In John 3 the attendance and crowd with John the Baptist was declining, and it was God’s will. I cannot imagine any church with a declining attendance stating it was God’s will, particularly with a preacher with the power of Elijah in it! That thought would never be considered. To use Christian analysis, “There has to be sin in the camp.”

I’m well aware that size attracts more people. The more cars at a restaurant at dinnertime, then the greater the indicator that it is a good place to eat. Is that really true? There is a situation in which I know a large church located about two blocks from a much smaller church. The larger church will have hundreds of cars whereas the smaller one will have 20-30 (on a good day). Is the larger church more successful, being blessed more by God than the smaller one? Is the larger church “obviously” preaching God’s word more faithfully and its members are more dedicated to the cause of Christ than those attending the smaller church? If the larger church has more professions of faiths and baptisms than the smaller church, is the larger one more successful?

Willow Creek Church (WCC) in the Chicago area has been used as a prototype of success for a number of years. Several years ago WCC hired some professional firm to do a scientific survey of the church. The findings astounded the church leadership. The end result was this: involvement and activity was no indicator (that is, there was no statistical correlation of data) of personal spiritual well being and sense of fulfillment with God or sense of doing God’s will. What was found that a sense of purpose with God and closeness with the Lord was due to two personal activities: 1) personal prayer and 2) personal reading and meditation on Scripture. The leadership learned that the large, large majority of the thousands of people attending their church enjoyed and had fun in what they were doing … but were no closer to God.

When I read portions of the WCC result my reaction was nonchalant, even semi-critical, “I wonder how many thousands they spend on something that is so obvious.” Again, it was only “obvious” to me because of this inward struggle that has never gone away. It seems to me that large churches with all kinds of activity are no more successful than smaller churches with few activities. I have no way to prove what I am about to say, but I have believed for many years that the percentage of people who are serving the Lord, who seek to fulfill His will, who believe God is working in their lives are fairly close to the percentages of any church in which the Word of God is preached.

I do not think that activities and the encouragement to participate in them should be lessened. That is not being advocated at all. I simply do not believe that the level of participation is any measurement of spiritual success. Spiritual success has been and will always be measured by one criterion … faith. Is an individual trusting the Lord, seeking to please the Lord in all that he does? So much of that faith occurs outside of church activities that there is no way to know.

If a person attends faithfully, tithes, and participates in whatever, is he growing spiritually if he is unkind to his wife, complains constantly on his job, bemoans the bad breaks in his life, fails to live a life that can be seen by his co-workers and neighbors as honoring the Lord? Of course, the answer to that is no, and that is the point. How do we know what is happening “off church campus”? Anyone can be polite in social settings. Again and again I return to the issue that there is no way to know.

So, I’m back to where I started. How can I know if a church is successful? I just cannot see the answer in activity and involvement. I’ve struggled with this for years. All I can determine (and that is very shaky) is my spiritual growth, not anyone else’s. Perhaps I should say, all I can try to determine and measure is my spiritual growth. Even if I say, “I feel so close to the Lord,” how can I be sure that isn’t simply because everything is going my way? If the Lord allowed Satan to “touch” me as Satan did Job, would I still be trusting the Lord or cursing Him as Job’s wife did?

This article’s framework was how to measure success in the church. I now realize that the real issue is how do we measure success anywhere. Am I spiritually successful in business because I make a profit or do not make a profit? From a non-spiritual perspective, profit proves success, but I’m not interested in that. What good is it if I make a fortune in profits, and then I hear in the background, “Fool, your soul will be required of you tonight.” Profit has no value in determining spiritual success.

Am I successful because I did well in school? What if I did well because I ignored prayer, ignored helping others who were brought across my path, or by ignoring family when I was needed? In all those situations I could have used “It is God's will that I do well in school” as a justification for ignoring the other things. Was I truly pursuing God’s will in studying to the neglect of some other needs? How do I know? Is there any way of knowing?

Am I successful or even pleasing God if I choose to work overtime? Needs take very little money to meet. At what point have I confused wants with needs? How will I know? Certainly the Bible only promises needs, but there are many illustrations of the Lord pouring out wants. So, when are my wants out of balance with my truly serving the Lord?

There is no way out of it. My only recourse is to trust the Lord that I’m pleasing Him. Any sense of assurance I have may be deception of my own doing. I cannot know as I would like to know. I have to trust Him in all things, even my uncertainties. Perhaps my “good works” are loaded with impure motives, which I have not been able to see in my life. There are things I do now or beliefs I have now that are contrary to what I had several years ago. So, was I successful then, and have now fallen? Or was I unsuccessful then (though I thought I was okay), and, in actuality and truth, I am successful now? What happens when new behavior and new beliefs occur five years from now? Am I really unsuccessful now?

These questions are unanswerable. All I can do is dedicate what I’m doing and thinking unto the Lord. If my offerings are sullied, then I trust Him to reveal that to me. If He does not, it could be my offerings are good; or ... am I simply unable to bear the answer right now? I am always at the mercy and grace of my Heavenly Father … always, always, always. When I falter in my trust, then I can only cry like the father with the demon-oppressed son, “I believe, Lord. Help my unbelief.”

We are always maturing children before the Lord. As a loving parent, He knows my motives will be mixed, my goals confused, my self-judgments tainted … yet, He loves me and will work with me. As I think on this, I am more humbled by the greatness of the Lord’s grace and love.

In conclusion: in all my judgments, in all my works, in all my self-evaluations, in all my haunting doubts …I will never be more than the Drummer Boy bringing a poor present to the King, who in His grace and mercy, sees my intent to please Him and considers it as great as a gift as from any angel.