This Eastertide, our congregation is focusing on the mission that Jesus has given the church. As N.T. Wright so aptly put it, the task of the church is to “plant the flags of resurrection—new life, new communities, new churches, new faith, new hope, new practical love—in amongst the tired slogans of idolatrous modernity and destructive postmodernity.”

So here’s the question: How do we know when we’re doing a good job? How can an individual Christian or a congregation figure out if they are succeeding at the task God has given us?

For most of us, the stated or unstated default answer is this: the presence of tangible, positive results is a sure sign we are laboring well. These "positive results” can be various good things. For a Christian parent, positive results could be having children that grow up to be faithful Christian adults. For those with a heart for justice, positive results could mean effectively mobilizing others to serve the poor. For pastors, good results often mean numerical growth in a congregation.

I think this is a trap. Making these good things (and they’re all good things) barometers of whether or not we are doing a good job of following Jesus into mission quickly leads us astray. It makes us servants under the tyrannical rule of what William James so aptly called “the bitch goddess of success”.

So what are we to do? I think we should reject idolatrous notions of success. But we can’t just leave an empty space there. The via negativa is not a satisfying way to live. We need something positive to work towards. We need a better definition of true success.

I am currently reading through a book that gives such a definition. Kent & Barbara Hughes’ book, “Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome” has been very beneficial to me. Through a powerful combination of a life of ministry and a love for God’s word, they flesh out a compelling vision for evaluating our kingdom-centered labors.

Here is the core of their argument: faithfulness to God is success. This is so simple, but incredibly profound. Anyone can be faithful. Anyone can love God, serve others, and live a life of grateful obedience. And this is what we are called to do. Any other definition of success will ultimately undo you and those around you.

It’s true Kent and Barbara wrote the book for pastors. However, I think one can easily apply their concepts to other aspects of following Jesus into mission.