Success?

I know senior pastors can go through some pretty depressing thoughts on Sunday afternoon, and monday.  Re-hashing what they said, what they could have said, what the church needs to do better or differently, feeling like a failure.

Well youth pastors can go through that too.  I’ve been feeling it lately.  I know that the size of our ministries weekly attendance is small, and I have a certain amount of internal and external pressure to see it grow.  And that sucks.  I try to play it cool, like it doesn’t affect me, but it does.  The frustration grows and the ministry doesn’t.

This morning I started my work week by sending in last nights youth group numbers.  And I commented for the first time on my frustration.  I never do that.  I usually just email in the numbers and move on.   I didn’t know why I did that.  I cleaned out my inbox, and then went to my google reader account to read some of my blog mentors.  I find this is a good way for me to start the day.  Email, check the blogs, and then focus on my projects the rest of the day.  That’s just my process.

The 2nd blog I read was from Craig Groeschel.  He writes short weekly series around a central theme.  This week his theme is on success.  Man I needed to read this. Go read the post, and keep up with this weeks series it’s going to be great.  the central idea is this:

The size of your ministry does not determine the level of your success.

So where am I seeing success in my ministry?  I see success when a student wants to take ownership over our missions giving.  I see success when a parent says “Thanks for investing in my child.”  I see success when I go to Kellogg Middle School, and the students want to just talk to someone, and I’m available to be there and give them the attention that they deserve.  I see success when students tell me they’ve been thinking about something we talked about, or that they disagreed with me and they want to talk about it.  I see success when prayer request go beyond school and into matters of life and death.  I see success when students actually pray for each other.

Jesus drew a crowd on several occassions but his ministry was 12 guys and one of them wanted him dead.  So I find great comfort in that.