Rethinking the Successful Church: Finding Serenity in God's Sovereignty

Rethinking the Successful Church by Samuel D. Rima is one of the very best books I've ever read on the topic of church ministry and pastoral success. It is a book that should be read by every pastor, church leader, and seminarian. In short, the book blows up all the typical standards that most pastors and churches use to gage success in the church. Rima reveals how churches and pastors have been contaminated by a world that mainly values quantitative success: good offerings, mall-sized church buildings, large church staffs, lots of visitors, and many church members. The remedy that Rima offers to counter our flawed evaluative systems is short, but sweet: find serenity in God's sovereignty. The book begins with an analysis of our obsession with mega-churches and false ministry "success," and the mistake many churches make in attempting to apply formulas to replicate ministry success. Rima then examines how our definitions of ministry success as pastors and churches are often "sick" and are not aligned with a healthy understanding of God's sovereignty. He explores why pastors feel the need to measure their success by numbers, and why so many pastors are consequently burning out, debilitating churches, and leaving the ministry. In order to heal our sickness as churches and pastors, we must restart as square one and redefine what true success looks like. We can only begin to do that by understanding the loving sovereignty of God as our stimulus to trust God with reckless faith. Only when we begin to understand and believe that God is control of our ministries, and that we aren't, can we experience true serenity in ministry that God desires for us. Near the end of the book, Rima offers several qualitative means we should use to measure true success in ministry. By asking these six questions that probe the qualitative health of our ministry, we are on the road to true ministry success: 1) What is the current state of my relationship with God? 2) Am I truly enjoying ministry? 3) How am I treating the people I minister to and those who serve with me? 4) How am I handling the suffering that is an inevitable part of ministry? 5) How well am I empowering others for effective public ministry? 6) How much joy do I derive from the success of my ministry colleagues? I wish I could type up a list of my favorite quotes from this book; however, I'm certain I would end up re-typing most of the book. Almost every sentence in my copy is underlined. You just need to read it for yourself. That being said, I will share one great quote I marked last night as I finished the book: "At some point on our ministry journey we have got to realize that we can build the biggest church in the world and actually see thousands of people coming to Christ, and still be an abysmal failure in the eyes of God. If our motives are impure, our methods dubious, and our personal character and spirituality seriously flawed, I do not believe God considers us successful. When people come to

Ministers and seminary students should read this book. There is so much emphasis out there on grow grow grow, and Samuel Rima cuts to the heart of this. I found that his book raised incredibly challenging issues for my seminary students and I would continue to use it were I still teaching (see "My Calvin Seminary Story"). Rima started out with a healthy vision as so many ministers do. But without even realizing it, his focus began to change. "Almost imperceptibly, my motives and desires began to subtly shift." He had tasted success. "As our little church began to grow, even beyond my expectations, my initial standards for ministry success were no longer sufficient." Soon it became an obsession: "I began to believe that if only I did the right things, applied the proper techniques, and raised enough money I could simply manufacture church growth, just like a mortgage banker increases his or her market share." Finally, it turned into an addiction: "I was experiencing the onset of full-blown mega-church mania and I was growing increasingly miserable in ministry. . . . I have personally experienced the frantic, manic ministry life produced by my own dark side and fragile personal ego needs." Rima bears his soul in this book. He's not pointing the finger at others. He's pointing the finger at himself, but others will resonate with him as he does.