Churches
like things they can count: attendance,
baptisms, money. While
those numbers may
give some indication of how we are doing, let me offer you another
way to
measure spiritual health and success. In
Colossians 4:7, Paul describes his friend Tychicus by saying that
he is, “A
dear brother, a faithful minister and a fellow servant”.
Tychicus
was not Paul’s blood brother, but he was a brother none-the-less. Relationships like that
should be a mark of the
church. They are valuable
because they
allow us to practice our new life together.
When the early church is described, we find that the
believers ate
together, encouraged and taught one another, shared what they had,
looked after
each other and added in any who wanted to join them (Acts 2 and
4). A successful church
fosters deep
relationships.
Note
too that Tychicus was faithful. In
some
circles, faithful has become code for “teaching things that I
agree with” or
“shows up for church”. However,
faithful
is a much bigger word. Faithfulness
involves
every aspect of life. In
other words, if
you do all the right things on Sunday morning, but you are a jerk
on Thursday
afternoon, you are not a faithful person regardless of what your
worship is
like. Jesus said,
“Whoever can be
trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and
whoever is
dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much” (Luke
16:10). Did you get that? Faithfulness is determined by
how one handles
the seemingly unimportant things of life.
The little things tell the truth and show what sort of
person you
are. Tychicus was praised
because his
faith changed everything about him and made him better.
Lastly,
Tychicus was a servant. These
days, people
want to be important, have an impact, or do something big and
spectacular. However, the
biggest impact that you can have
on the life of another person is to serve them.
Remember, even Jesus, “Did not come to be served, but to
serve and give
his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Gauging
success in God’s kingdom is difficult if numbers are our only
measurement. How many
baptisms are enough? How
big does a church need to be?
Maybe
if, by God’s grace and power, we focused on the more Biblical
aspects of a
successful Christian life, we would find that the numbers would
take care of
themselves.
Comments