SUCCESS??

"Well done, good and faithful servant... enter thou into the joy of thy lord."  (from Matthew 25:23)

There's a sort of humorous communication which happens at the barber shop each time I get a haircut.  When one of the barbers finishes the haircut, I smile and enthusiastically announce "Success!" and the barbers chuckle!

But what is success - really?  This has been a very reflective few days for me.  My missionary daughter Amy was Ordained to the Assemblies of God ministry this past Sunday night.  I'm very proud of Amy and her husband David, and all of the wonderful works they do in Papua New Guinea.  Ironically I was Ordained in May of 1985 just five days before Amy was born!  As my late father used to ask, "Where does the time go?"  

Speaking of my father and mother, they were very "old school" in so many ways!  My father especially was the epitome of practical and sensible.  He had to endure the frustration of having a firstborn son who not only was not good at sports and had no mechanical ability, but also was in many respects an idealistic dreamer.  My idealistic dreamer stuff really frustrated both of my parents.  When I "got saved" as a teenager my mother (who was a devout Catholic) told me I was "too religious"!  My father just kind of shook his head regarding his Bible-studying and unrealistic son.

After I got out of Bible College and became a credentialed minister, I so wanted them to see me become "successful".  I wanted them to see that I was more than an idealistic and crazy dreamer.  One of the facts of my life that saddens me is they never really did experience me being "successful".  I pastored a small, struggling church where things constantly went wrong.  They loved my wife and they loved their grandchildren.  But "Bobby" was still this guy chasing dreams like the character Ray in Field of Dreams.

The church's closing by the Assemblies of God in 2010, and the embarrassment and criticism I endured because of that closure honestly still bother me.  One of my ecclesiastical superiors told me at the time that I "was in the wrong seat on the bus" and I was "not lead pastor material".  I hate that term lead pastor.  I deliberately never use it.  I first heard it during the the mid-1990s.  Today in church circles you hear it all the time.  The term began with evangelical organizations, but now even the most theologically liberal churches use the terms lead minister and lead pastor.  I wish the Assemblies of God would give that term "lead pastor" a decent burial!  We've all got ideas about what a "leader" is supposed to be like.  At the Ordination service on Sunday night, Superintendent Nick Fatato presented a number of principles based on the books of First and Second Timothy.  Those bible books are among the Pastoral Epistles.  Paul was writing to the young man Timothy to encourage and mentor him.  Timothy was sent to do pastoral ministry in the church at Ephesus which was a very tough church to pastor!  Timothy was young, somewhat inexperienced, timid, a nervous person with stomach issues, and had largely grown up under the spiritual tutelage of his mother and grandmother.  Now, think about this:  If he was applying for Ordination today, would he be Ordained without hesitation?  If he were being considered to be the "lead pastor" (I need to get a grip after using that term!) of a challenging and difficult church, would our modern Presbyters and leaders in the Assemblies of God be for that or against that?  Would they say he was "getting into the wrong seat on the bus"?  Yet, God called Timothy!  Actually, I think today's officials might have accepted him because he came with such a strong recommendation from the Apostle Paul!  In the late 1950s God sent a skinny young preacher from rural Pennsylvania to reach the tough teenage and young adult street gang members of New York City!  True story - At the time some Assemblies of God officials wanted to "remove his credentials" but one Presbyter stopped that.  That skinny young guy was David Wilkerson and we know the miraculous story of The Cross and the Switchblade.

Many decades ago an Assemblies of God pastor and his wife told me they believed I have a "Forerunner's Anointing".  They gave me material about what that meant.  They encouraged me and believed in me.  (That couple were Bob and Donna Harris who pastored in Clinton, Mass.)  They were right!  I was in many respects an "Elijah" to my daughter Amy who is in many ways my "Elisha".  If you don't know the story of Elijah and Elisha it's all in First and Second Kings in the Bible.  People with a Forerunner's Anointing precede the way for someone who will have a far greater ministry.  Elijah took on the 450 prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel and they were defeated.  Yet, just a short time later Elijah became very depressed and told God he did not want to live.  John the Baptist is a powerful example of a man with a Forerunner's Anointing, as he "prepared the way" for Jesus' earthly ministry.  People with a Forerunner's Anointing will do great and mighty exploits for God.  Yet, they're also prone to doubt, depression, and despair.  In Matthew chapter 11, John the Baptist who had been imprisoned sent messengers to Jesus asking if He was really the Messiah.  Considering he saw the Holy Spirit descend like a dove and heard the voice of God the Father announcing who Jesus was; well, you'd think he wouldn't have to ask Jesus such a foolish question.  Again, it all goes with the Forerunner's Anointing.  Would any of you want to tell Elijah or John the Baptist they were "in the wrong seat on the bus"?

There was a great woman of God who died in 2014.  She was a public figure.  I don't want to "drag her name through the mud" or write anything which would be hurtful to her surviving four sons, so I will just use her initials:  A.K.A.  

A.K.A. was an evangelical Christian motivational speaker and inspirational author.  She was very "big" in the 1970s.  Her books are great.  Her speeches were great.  She helped, inspired, and motivated countless numbers of Christians.  During the 1970s she was a spectacular success.  In the early 1980s she married a farmer who has been described as her "exact opposite".  They tried to have kids, but for some reason she was not able to get pregnant.  They ultimately adopted four sons, getting each kid as an infant.  A.K.A. and her husband (for whatever reasons) had a very bad marriage.  The farm failed.  They faced financial ruin.  He got cancer and died.  There was no life insurance.  She was left with four teenage boys.  She went through some tough stuff with at least two of the boys.  Life was very hard.  And a couple of years prior to his death, she'd been admitted for over a week to a detox center due to addiction to prescription medicines.  I wonder if A.K.A. had a Fourunner's Anointing?  Like Elijah and John the Baptist she won great spiritual victories and walked with God, and like them, and me, she sometimes got into a very bad place.

Online I found her blog!  Specifically I found an entry from 2009.  She poured out her heart writing about the difficulties she'd had raising her sons, but bringing it all around to praising God for His faithfulness and encouraging her readers who were going through tough times that things were going to be OK!  Boy, did I relate to her!  Five years after she wrote that blog post, she died of cancer, penniless.  Tell me, do you think she was a success or was she a failure?  We do have female pastors in the Assemblies of God.  Was she "lead pastor material"?

I've presented some "tough stuff" in this piece.  Lest anyone misunderstand, I'm actually in a very good place today!  Like A.K.A.  I've been in some tough places!  But like A.K.A.  (and Elijah and John)  I have experienced profound spiritual victories that I did not deserve but that God brought!  Like A.K.A.  I sit here writing a blog and hoping someone reads and becomes blessed, motivated, and inspired by what I'm writing!

Who or what is a "Success"?  It's the person to whom the Lord will say these words:

"Well done, good and faithful servant... enter thou into the joy of thy lord."