The Measurement of Success

I read a section in "Perspectives on Family Ministry" by Timothy Paul Jones this morning on The Measurement of Success. I found it so overwhelmingly true that I was compelled to share it here. I have been preaching a series on the nature and character of the church because I believe that any church who is looking for a pastor ought to have a Biblical understanding of what the church ought to be and what the church ought to do. This is primarily because how you define the church determines how you define success, and how you define success will dictate everything else you do.
"Unfortunately, pragmatism rules in our culture and in many of our churches. As a result, success is often measured by size and budget rather than faithfulness. In his book The Courage to Be Protestant, David Wells questions the pragmatic measures of success in many market-driven churches:
'How can we argue with success? I believe that we can. More than that, in this case, I believe that we must, that we should. What we have here are churches reconfigured around evangelism that abandon much of the fabric of biblical faith to succeed. They have taken a part of that faith, modified it in deference to consumer impulse, and then made of that part all there is to Christian faith. Here is a methodology for success that can succeed with very little truth; indeed, its success seems to depend on not showing much truth.'"
"The temptation to measure success 'with very little truth' is greater than any of us would care to admit. It is difficult not to measure success by budgets and numbers when salaries and positions depend on maintaining the organization."
"One of my friends was discussing family integration with a senior pastor who gave this reply: 'The theology sounds right, but the application has to be wrong because our people can't do it and it would make our church shrink.' This man was an ecclesiological pragmatist. He had defined not only right success but right theology according to what seemed to work from a human perspective."
"Before homes and churches can ever experience spiritual reformation, biblical standards for success must replace ecclesiological pragmatism. It is so easy to wear cultural lenses and to read culturally accepted practices into the Holy Scripture. That's also why it is important to step outside our culture by reading the works of saints who lived in other times and places."
"A church is successful only to the degree that it lines up with Scripture in these areas. To the degree that we lead God's church Biblically, we will experience his blessing, not necessarily in buildings and money but in churches that closely resemble what Jesus and the apostles expected churches to look like."