Faithful, Successful, or Fruitful? by Brian Sheetz

In his book,Bearing Fruit: Ministry with Real Results,  Dr. Weems writes:

[Churches] sometimes feel they have only two options: one is “faithfulness” with little regard for results, and the other is to adopt the “success” culture they see around them. But a third option is fruitfulness. Success is not the goal…but fruitfulness is. Fruitfulness always holds within it the important passion for faithfulness, for no genuine and lasting fruitfulness is possible without such faithfulness… It seeks to shape the life and work of the congregation through a shared passion for its mission.

When I read that paragraph I thought back to a number of consultations I have had with local churches. I thought of the enthusiastic youth director at a very large church who scheduled a Bible study at the local high school at 6:30 a.m., a time when only one participant showed up. Faithful? Absolutely. But not fruitful.

This fall I heard a pastor of a mega church in Texas discuss his decision to shut down the annual father-daughter tea. The event was a tradition in the church with dozens of elementary-aged girls modeling new dresses, dads in suits and throngs of moms on the sidelines snapping pictures and doting in general. Successful? Without a doubt. But, he argued, it had nothing to do with the mission of the church.

Divide all of the programs and ministries of your church into two lists, those that are faithful and those that are successful. Hopefully some of them will be on both lists, highlight those as your fruitful ministries.

Consider those that are fruitful. What makes them so? I don’t mean how you measure them to be both faithful and successful, but what is driving that fruitfulness? Is it vision? Is it the passion of a member or two who have this as their personal ministry? What is it that separates these from the ministries that are only either successful or faithful, but not both?

Now consider the programs on your other two lists. To what degree are they a liability to the church in terms of finances, volunteer time, facility requirements or a distraction from the mission?

A word of caution: a new program that is wonderfully faithful may not yet have achieved “successful” status. Or a successful program may have a new leader who is changing the culture toward faithfulness. I would encourage you to give these the time and nurturing needed to blossom into fruitfulness.

Once you have considered this, share your thoughts with others from your church.