This powerful message is the second excerpt from the book unchurching by Ricard Jacobson.
Maybe the reason we do not recognize the true cost of today’s church model is because when we turn the church into an organization, we start to think like an organization-we begin measuring success in worldly terms, not spiritual terms. The standard of success becomes the size of our church budget, the scale of our next building project, and the number of people in the pews. However, Jesus used a completely different standard for measuring his own success.
At the height of his popularity when he walked the earth, Jesus had a following that would make even today’s megachurch pastors
envious. But due to his controversial teaching, many disciples eventually deserted him (John 6:66). However, as Jesus was praying to the Father right before his death, he made a couple of truly mind-blowing statements about his own ministry. In John 17:4 he said:I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do (NIV).
This means Jesus knew he was successful in his mission, despite popular opinion. So, how did he measure his success? He told us plainly in John 17:12:
None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that scripture would be fulfilled (NIV).
Except for Judas who was destined to betray him, Jesus claimed, “none has been lost.”Think about this for a moment. Jesus lost many disciples, possibly thousands. In terms of profits and losses, Jesus was clearly in the red. So how could he claim, “none has been lost?” Apparently, he did not consider himself responsible for the crowds; he only considered himself responsible for the Twelve. Though he ministered to everyone, the Twelve were specifically given to him by God. He even said as much in John 17:6:
I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word (NIV).
Earlier, we discussed how Jesus made it his main priority to invest in his disciples. And now we see that he actually evaluated his entire success on how well he completed this single task.
This raises an interesting question: since Jesus is our example in all things, is this the same pattern we are supposed to follow? Is it possible God will judge the success of our ministries, not by impressive numbers, but by specific names? Does he entrust us with certain people and, even though we might minister to others, are those specific people our primary mission on this planet?
If so, what does it mean if we pursue the crowds at the expense of those with whom we were entrusted? We know the Good Shepherd is willing to leave the ninety-nine to go after the one (Matthew 18:12-14). But what happens if we leave one behind in our quest to gain ninety-nine more? Is it possible we might stand before God one day, boasting about our big ministries, saying “Lord, look at all these people I brought you,” only to have him reply, “That’s great. But what happened to the ones I gave you?”
Richard Jacobson, unchurching