Pressure Points: Measuring Up
Overview
Is Your Ministry a Success?
If you are like most pastors, you want to be a successful church leader. You start out with the desire to teach God’s principles, help other believers and reach out to your community, but you may become sidetracked by a desire to please others. The passion to make a difference begins to fade as you struggle to make everyone happy. As a pastor, what should you strive for? Congregational approval? High attendance figures? Significant weekly offerings? How can you deal with the need to succeed and the fear of failure?
These questions and many others are answered in Measuring Up, the third volume of Mastering Ministries Pressure Points series. Written by three experienced pastors, Measuring Up outlines practical principles to help you measure your ministry’s effectiveness, and shows you how to thrive throughout its ups and downs.
Top Highlights
“But that’s the point: fulfilling potential and obeying the Lord are not always the same thing.” (Page 21)
“But I’ve discovered that the heart that recoils in shame over failure to achieve potential tends to swell up with pride over success. I don’t want that kind of heart, nor do I want to fall back into the trap called potential. Ministry is too great a privilege not to enjoy.” (Page 23)
“We get tough, because we do not want to grow faster than we can assimilate people. The goal is a horse better prepared for the battle: not more people attending North Coast but more people growing in the Lord and doing ministry.” (Page 22)
“These ads play into one of our culture’s most deeply held values: maximizing our potential is one of life’s greatest responsibilities—anyone who settles for less makes a tragic if not shameful mistake.” (Page 16)
“Ironically, our decision to focus on health has fueled growth. Maybe it’s not so ironic: once I gave up the manipulation of numbers and concentrated on ministry to people, it’s only natural more people were interested in coming. Perhaps being faithful has something to do with one of the great spiritual mysteries: we gain life by losing it, and we enhance ministry by giving up the yearning for successful ministry.” (Pages 22–23)
Product Details
- Title: Pressure Points: Measuring Up
- Authors: Larry W. Osborne, Knute Larson, Stuart Briscoe
- Publisher: Multnomah Books
- Publication Date: 1993
- Pages: 79