I was speaking with some friends the other day about the local church markers of “success” (yuck!) It is particularly poignant for me as I am now within a week of the final Sunday pastoring the church I have served for the last 12 years. How does one look back and measure success? Has my ministry been at all successful?

There has certainly been one conversion as a direct result of some stuff I did and we’ve gained one long-term disciple who has objectively grown. I suppose we could chalk those things up as “successes”. But the usual sorts of things like conversions, growth in number, qualitative growth, evangelistic output, discipleship, finances, and what have you are very unsatisfying measures.

Even things like the number of people who became Christians is not a great measure because that really isn’t in my hands and the number of people who grew under my ministry is also not in my hands and virtually impossible to quantify. Sometimes as the gospel is preached, we are called to a ministry of sifting that might look like a lot of people who thought they were believers being removed from your church. Sometimes the words of life are received as the Lord’s judgement because men love the darkness rather than the light. Ultimately, we can’t measure success that way.

In the end, I think success came down to two basic things. You may find them unsatisfying, I don’t know. But as my ministry rolled on, as my Christian life rolls on, I find these two things more and more compelling. Some might consider them a low bar, but I think ambition and big plans have done much to ruin a lot of men and churches. That is not to say they are at all wrong as thing, I think they are probably a right reflex from a heart that genuinely believes in a sovereign God who can do all things and expects him to work. But I am also conscious these things can quickly become ruinous and, in the end, are not what I am fundamentaly aiming for.

First, I consider it a success that a faithful church is still there. There is a stat that I don’t have to hand about the number of church plants that fail in the first five years (I’ve heard more than a few disputed figures). Somewhere in the region of 350 churches close every year in the UK. In our little area of Glodwick, where there were once several churches, the area is now replete with mosques – one of which now meets in an old Methodist building up the street – and we are the last church standing. We can go into all the whys and wherefores of that and discuss which kind of churches seem to be closing and which seem to thrive. All very interesting I’m sure. But at the end of the day, that I can finish up and leave a functioning church that will still preach the gospel faithfully feels like something of a success.

Second, I consider it a success that I am still walking with the Lord. I don’t know whether these things have become more regular or if they’ve always happened at this rate and we just hear about them more, but pastors seem to fall away; a lot! Well known ministers with international ministries seem to be having affairs, disgracing themselves and bringing the gospel into disrepute with disturbing regularity. So it feels like something of a success to be finishing up knowing that I still love the Lord, haven’t fallen away and didn’t publicly disgrace the gospel. That, these days, feels like success. I’m not complacent about that. I have many years left in me to disgrace myself and I know my own heart. I don’t take faithfulness as a given. But I do reckon that the Lord has preserved me up to now and trust he will continue to do so. I am hopeful if not complacent.

Both these measures may seem low bars and there are many years yet for either the church or my personal walk to falter and fail. I pray that the Lord will keep both from that. But speaking as of today, a church still standing and a personal faith still in tact – not to mention the individual faith of the rest of my family still holding up – feels to me like no small thing. Unless either thing has a catastrophic breakdown in the next few weeks, I’d say ending a ministry and getting to that point feels pretty successful to be honest.