One of my favorite things that I have learned from Jeremiah’s ministry is the importance of reframing success, and I find this topic especially relevant to pastoral ministry. I believe Jeremiah’s example teaches us to reframe success from how it might be traditionally viewed and replace it with faithful obedience to God.
How often do we consider the success of a pastor or of a church solely in the growth of the number of people in the pews? Interestingly enough, we know from the example of many mega churches that this can’t be the only metric of success and in fact it might be the opposite of success! It might mean greater numbers of people remaining on the broad road to destruction, just more comfortably, with a sense they’re right with God because they go to church.
If we consider that success only comes when people listen to the message and respond in faith, then Jeremiah is surely a failure by those standards. If the metric of success is based upon the responses of other people, then no one can truly be a great success in sharing the gospel or running a church or what have you.
Jeremiah was faithful to the ministry that God gave him. He warned of impending judgment if the people didn’t turn from their sin. They didn’t listen. Judgment came. Was Jeremiah a failure? According to worldly standards, probably. The people didn’t listen, and the forewarned judgment came. But if we reframe success as faithful obedience to God, then Jeremiah was a great success. He spoke God’s Word under the threat of persecution. He was imprisoned. He was cast into the cistern. He was left to starve until someone convinced the king to bring him out! Even then when he has the opportunity to meet with King Zedekiah of Judah, he pleads with him to surrender to the King of Babylon because Babylon’s conquest was in God’s plan. Jeremiah was bold with the truth and faithfully spoke God’s message.
Tomorrow we’ll see how Zedekiah finally disobeyed Jeremiah’s words and the consequences. For now, let’s try and reframe our definition of success. If we faithfully obey God, if we do what He’s called us to do, and we serve Him faithfully, then we’re a success. No matter what the world says. No matter how the world measures success. Do we want to see people heed the message of the gospel? Yes! Do we want to see growth in numbers in the church? Surely! But if we don’t see these things I don’t think it’s automatically disqualifying that we’ve failed. Have we been faithful? If so, then we are a success in God’s eyes.
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