Addicts of our own success. . .

Sometimes in the life of the Church, we realize that we are not really pursuing the goals and purposes of the Church as Christ has commanded but seeking success, approval, recognition, and, best of all, numbers.  Everything seems to come down to numbers but it starts with success.  We want to succeed.  It is probably in our nature to seek success and no one but a fool would pursue failure, at least deliberately.  But success can prove a poor teacher.  It teaches us less than failure does and it might impart lessons which are hard for us to shake.  When something works, we often stop looking to see if it passes the faithfulness or orthodoxy test.  If is works, that is usually good enough for us.

Approval is what we all seek.  Some of us probably seek the approval of God but I fear those numbers grow less and less over the ages.  We do seek the approval of others.  We are consumed by the need to be affirmed by those around us -- from family and friends to peers and even strangers.  We want approval and that need has led us to find ways around the Word of God in order to get the approval of those whose values and views conflict with God's own revelation.  If given a choice, most of us in the Church would trade God's approval (heck, He forgives us anyway) with the approval of those outside the Church (who are less likely to forgive any intrusion into their chosen way of life or feelings about it all.  Why else would we admit that Scripture has long forbidden as not simply wrong but bad for us in all sorts of behaviors we now want to accept or tolerate or even commend?  It starts with sex but it does not end there -- that is the lesson from Eden.

Recognition is hot on the list of things we want.  It is better to be known and rejected than to be ignored.  Even thought it might be better to be ignored by the forces at work in society and culture, we do not want to trade fame and its fortune for being forgotten or ignored -- even if that was the better path of faithfulness and orthodoxy.  Like Trump's idea that there is no such thing as bad publicity, we want the recognition of society and those around us more than we want to be commended by God.  It is the fatal flaw of sin and it might even be stronger in us than the desire for self-preservation or self-expression.  We want at least our fifteen minutes in the spotlight.

Numbers is where it all seems to end.  Using statistics to define both success and failure is hard for a God who promised a remnant or a nation to an old man and an old woman but it is not difficult for us.  We do not know how to gauge the statistics on faithfulness but we can measure the folks in the pews and how much they put in the plate or the ratings given to us on social media.  Is this the primary concern for the Church and her leaders?  No, I am not saying that decline is the cost of faithfulness always but sometimes it is.  The world is filled with the same itching ears as the pews and we attach our hopes to those who seem to show revival just as we blame those who suffer decline.  We take our comfort in numbers even more than in the Lord and, if we had to choose, we would probably choose stars, a satisfactory attendance number, and a healthy bank account over just about everything else.  That is what we wrestle with even within the Church and even among her pastors.

In some respects, we are addicts of our own success -- wishing to recreate the golden years of boomtown economies, suburban sprawl, immigration, or whatever else was working when we seemed to have no end to our future.  Now, we kick doctrine to the curb and jettison the liturgy and shop in the catalog of evangelical practices to find something that will make our glory filled yesterdays into today and tomorrow.  We forget how the Church began, the sufferings of the early years, the controversies that nearly tore us apart, the confusion of regal splendor with churchly nobility, the isolation of people from their churchly leaders, and so many other things.  He who endures to the end shall be saved.  I wish I listened to that more and I wish my church would as well.