When I was training for ministry in college, while I would never have said it like this, the thought was there, buried deep within, surrounded by good motives: I’ll be a successful pastor if I’m a famous pastor.
And because of that misguided notion, before I was ever in the ministry, I felt the pressure to produce.
“Oh, you’re planning to become a pastor?” someone would ask. “The Lord is going to do great things through you!” they’d say.
And I always thought, “But what if He doesn’t? I’ll be a failure, an underachiever, and I’ll be letting others down. Will I have wasted my career? My life?”
My friends were going into business, and in the business world, you find the ladder in the room and you climb it. Career success looks like production and movement.
If you don’t produce, you get passed. The businessman becomes the top salesman, and his measurables are in numbers, and then he gets promoted to VP.
In the ministry world, the first question people often ask is: “How big is your church?” And then, two years later, when you see that person again, and he asks you the same question, but the number is smaller this time — it’s hard to hide the disappointment on his face.
So, in college there was a pressure to be successful. I felt the pressure to produce charismatic sermons, produce a big church, produce a big following, produce books and speaking engagements and the four B’s of ministry success: buildings, budgets, bodies, and baptisms.
That ambition for success drove me and haunted me at the same time. It drove me because, like Elijah, I wanted to do great things for the Lord. But it haunted me because — what if I didn’t?
What if no one ever knew me as I served 30 years in obscurity in a country church?
I got to the end of my college degree — 3.5 years preparing for ministry — and I walked away from the path to becoming a pastor. I didn’t want that view of the pastorate. I didn’t want the rat race of climbing the ministry ladder.
Turns out, I’m not the only one to have felt this pressure. So many pastors and churches chase these measurables, which is one reason why the American church is riddled with pragmatism as many churches use whatever means necessary to get people in the room.
But how should success be measured for pastors and ministry leaders?
What should be our view of gospel ministers? How should we regard those in the work of the ministry?
The apostle Paul answers these questions in the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 4. I’ll explore three of them in this article.
1. A minister should be a servant of Christ.
1 Corinthians 4:1 — “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
Notice, as a servant of Christ, ministers have a very specific job. Verse 1 — stewardship.
The minister is to serve by being a steward. A steward is a manager. He gives oversight and is responsible for a project or task.
During a season of ministry transition, I worked at Chick-fil-A. When I first went there, I had very few tasks. At first, I wore a headset and stood by the drive-thru window all day taking orders.
Some days I thought in frustration, “I’ve got a wife and kids at home — I’ve got seven years of theological education, five years of ministry experience, and now I’m getting trained by a teenage Taylor Swift fan to say over and over: ‘Thank you for choosing Chick-fil-A, how can I serve you today?’” It was quite humbling.
But after some time, I worked my way up and became a director of operations, and suddenly I had a lot more to manage. Being a manager was much different than taking window orders; it came with a higher threshold of stewardship.
Paul calls ministers stewards, and they are specifically stewarding something way more significant than chicken sandwiches and Cobb salads. They are servants who are “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1).
This is the task of ministers: to be servants of Christ stewarding His gospel truths. They are to proclaim, teach, and disciple everyone with the truths of God.
Ministers are to hold open the vault of God’s Word and invite all to come in and be amazed at the truth and grandeur of God. Therefore, ministers are servants whose main tool is the Word of God, and they use it to promote a Word-centered ministry, not a performance-driven experience — because they know that lasting power comes in the Word of God through the Spirit of God, not the enticed will of man.
Ministers are to be managers of the mysteries of God. In this way, they are servants of Christ.
2. A minister should be faithful to Christ.
1 Corinthians 4:2 — “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”
What does it mean for a minister to be faithful? It means for him to be trustworthy. Trustworthy with what?
Consider the context of verse 1. Is the minister able to be trusted with the mysteries of God? When the minister preaches, does he handle the text of Scripture rightly? Is he faithful to communicate what God truly says? Is he on his own flight of fancy, soaring in rhetoric but away from the text?
The New Testament seems to emphasize two areas to determine if the minister is faithful — in his life and his teaching. Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16: “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.”
• He must be faithful in his own life.
As Galatians 2:14 describes it, the minister’s conduct must be in step with the truth of the gospel. This is why in the qualifications given for pastors/elders, most of them speak to the man’s character, not his giftings. Lots of men are gifted for ministry. But it’s a sorry state within a church when a man’s gifting outpaces his character. In many ways, the minister’s life is meant to be in the spotlight. And it’s a life that is meant to be spotlighted with the highest degree of character.
• He must be faithful in his teaching.
2 Timothy 2:15 — “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
Paul says a minister is faithful if he can stand under God’s evaluation and not be ashamed of how he handled the Word.
An overwhelming emphasis of the New Testament is avoiding false teaching and promoting the true teaching of God. The minister is responsible for this stewardship. In fact, this is the most important work of the minister — feeding the sheep.
A minister may feel inadequate in many ways — not people-oriented enough, not the best in conversation, not the best counselor, not very charismatic, average on knowledge, not an intellectual, etc. — but does he handle God’s Word rightly? Does he feed the sheep God’s truth? Can he take the ingredients of the Word, make the heavenly meal, and bring it to the church table?
I’m glad Paul didn’t say, “It’s required that ministers be found flashy or famous or charismatic or articulate.” I’m glad he didn’t say, “It’s required of gospel ministers to draw a crowd, hold a crowd, entertain the crowd, and grow a crowd.”
No, he says, “Can you be faithful?” Can he forget the crowd and feed the sheep?
The measuring stick for success in pastoral ministry is not producing fame but persevering in faithfulness, not increasing baptisms but maintaining character. It’s not growing the numbers but nourishing the sheep. It’s not promoting the ministry but teaching the Word. It’s not increasing influence but proclaiming the gospel. And it’s not about how fast you can get there and how big you are when you are there, but about how long and faithful you can stay to finish there!
What is success in ministry? Just be faithful. Let God be famous.
If it only it ended there, it would be easy.
But ministry is not a vacuum. Ministry is full of people. And people have opinions — specifically about ministers. If you’re in any sort of public ministry setting, you have likely heard the opinions of others about you. If you haven’t heard them, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. They do. People talk.
So how do ministers serve and aim for faithfulness without being crushed by all the evaluating opinions of them? Number 3 answers.
3. A minister should be focused on Christ.
1 Corinthians 4:3 — “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.”
This doesn’t mean Paul was closed off to constructive feedback or the wisdom from others. Instead, he’s showing where his ultimate focus lies. Paul is not sustained in ministry by other people’s opinions.
If the fuel that sustains you in ministry is dependent on good comments toward you or opinions about you, you will either crumble under the negativity that will come or you will compromise as you seek to maintain only good opinions about you from others.
Your perseverance in ministry cannot come from the positive opinions of others about you. Paul says, “It is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.”
So what? Does he only focus on himself? Is all that matters is what he thinks?” Absolutely not. He goes on to write, “In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.”
Paul’s singular focus is on Christ. Paul says, “The opinions of others about me … are a very small thing to me. And my own opinion about myself … doesn’t matter. … What matters is: The Lord judges me … .”
The faithful minister of the gospel must not be puffed up by others’ opinions, nor prideful of his own. He must be a self-forgetful person so that critiques do not crush him and compliments do not balloon him. He must be focused singularly on Christ if he’s to last in the ministry.
Faithful ministers must serve first from conviction about what God has said — not from concern about what the fallout will be. A faithful minister must lead confidently in the Lord’s judgment, not man’s opinion.
With this mentality, pastors must have thick skin and tender hearts — tender hearts to love and shepherd the members of the church, but thick skin that won’t absorb the crushing critiques that come from them. He must aim to honor Christ, not win the crowd.
As he serves as a steward, he must be faithful to have his focus on Christ and the task of His Word.
Successful Indeed
The minister must be a servant of Christ, faithful to Christ, and focused on Christ. This is how we should regard ministers of the gospel. And this is success for pastoral ministry.
— Donald Thomas serves as lead pastor of Abner Creek Baptist Church in Greer. He is also a member of The Baptist Courier’s board of trustees.