The Wisdom of Yoda:
Exploring a Godly Measure of Ministry Success

I admit it. I’m a huge Star Wars fan. But that’s really not why I sat down to write this article around some words of wisdom from the Star Wars universe. My motivation is rooted in that place in my heart that aches for pastors who struggle to find a righteous way to measure the success of their ministries.

God designed all of us with a need to know that we’re good at what we do. It’s not pride, it’s simply human. The problem is that the typical standard of success, size, is not directly applicable to ministry. But when everyone else is measuring the value of their accomplishments by the scales of “how big?” and “how much?” it’s hard for spiritual leaders not to do the same.

However, we have all experienced the devastating emotional and spiritual consequences of comparing our ministries, whatever the size of the crowd or the budget, to those we consider more successful – bigger – than ours. It’s always depressing, discouraging, and defeating. Even if it motivates us to work harder, the spirit behind that type of motivation is not the Holy Spirit and it’s a path to personal and ecclesiastical ruin.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a little green creature named, Yoda, said something that has been a great help to me regarding how I evaluate my ministry effectiveness:

“Size matters not. Judge me by my size do you?”

I love that! Every time the devil tries to exploit my need for affirmation with the trap of comparison, I try to remember this corny bit of sci-fi dialog. And more importantly, I try to remember something Jesus taught us in one of His parables that holds the truly liberating, life-giving key to this issue.

In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25) when Jesus describes the measure by which the master evaluates his successful servants, it’s easy to assume they were rewarded for “how much” profit they earned. But, that’s not true at all. The master commends them for doing well on the basis of two things completely unrelated to the size of what their diligence produced. He said they had done well because they were (1) good and (2) faithful servants. A good servant is one who does his master’s bidding. And a faithful servant is one who keeps doing it even when it isn’t easy.

That’s it, plain and simple. Clearly, Jesus meant for us to measure the effectiveness or our servanthood/ministry by this scale.

Now, let me be clear. I believe that size does matter as one of a set of ministry metrics that a wise leader periodically needs to evaluate. In fact, I once fired myself from being the pastor of a church I planted because its growth had leveled off. I determined that it was going to require a change of leadership to break the patterns of stagnation that had settled in.

However, as much as I believe that size is an important measurement for use in strategic thinking about ministry, you did NOT hear me say that I evaluate my personal value, worth, or success by that measure. It’s tempting, but I’ve learned by experience that I violate something of my relationship with Jesus when I do. Instead, I want to be successful for Jesus by simply doing what He tells me and continuing to do it for as long as He desires no matter what opposes me.

Success by this scale is not as easily quantifiable as counting money and people – “nickels and noses” – but it is infinitely more godly and ultimately causes a greater degree of fruitfulness in our lives and ministries.