The Trend for Visible Results

The drumbeat is steady and firm…“Go where God is blessing.”  Why not? It is more exciting to join success than to plod along with few visible results. I read it again today, “Stop asking God to bless what you are doing. Find out what God is doing. It’s already blessed.”

 What if…what God is doing has little visible results? Early missionaries to India labored for more than twenty years before the first church was established. Did they waste their lives in unfruitful fields? The results of their faithfully plodding along have now resulted in thousands of churches.

 What if…our inner motivation is for personal significance? Does seeking to be a part of a visibly blessed ministry validate the work of God? The Lord commissioned Isaiah to a work where people were always hearing but never understanding, always seeing but never perceiving.  Oswald Chambers wrote: 

 Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer—to pour out your life sacrificially for the ministry and faith of others? Or do you say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don’t want God to tell me how to serve Him. I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice. And I want to have certain people watching me and saying, “Well done.”

 It is one thing to follow God’s way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a “doormat” under other people’s feet. God’s purpose may be to teach you to say, “I know how to be abased . . .” ( Philippians 4:12 ). Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket-to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted—not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude, because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.[1]

 Surely the attitude of Christ is not one that demands to be part of a visible result, nor is it one that chooses fields because of their fruitfulness. There is a higher calling than visible results—a calling to faithful obedience. A quick survey of scripture uncovers countless stories of faithful servants who never saw the results of their faith.

 Jesus directed his disciples to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. A slight twist of the instructions of Jesus takes the emphasis off of obedience and faithfulness to the task and places it onto the outcomes. This does not excuse laziness or disobedience. It does, however, point out that there may be years of labor invested into a ministry with few visible results.

 Can we rejoice with those who are seeing the fruit of their labors, while at the same time encouraging those who are faithfully serving in places of unseen fruitfulness? Can we encourage those entering ministry to adopt of spirit of sacrificial service that may or may not result in visible effectiveness? All of this can be rather imposing when faced with the realities of many unproductive churches. An extremist would insist on placing all of the emphasis on pastoral integrity, where an appropriate priority on the pastor’s character would be a wiser path.

 The challenge is to find ways in which to strengthen pastoral integrity and properly evaluate church performance. Christ call “to bear fruit, fruit that will last” is not a mere adoption of a vineyard metaphor for church growth. It is a call for growing mature disciples. Our tendency to evaluate a pastor based on how well his church is performing rather than on faithful obedience.

[1] Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, February 5th