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| Volume 27 Number 12 December 2025 |
Page 12 |
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| Volume 27 Number 12 December 2025 |
Page 12 |
Steve Higginbotham
What makes a successful church? The answer to that question depends on whom you ask. Most people think a successful church is measured in large numbers, big budgets, programs that meet their needs and state-of-the-art facilities.
However, none of those standards are proof of success. In fact, each one of those standards could just as well be present in a dead church. Do you remember the church at Sardis (Revelation 3:1–6)? This was a church that had a good reputation and was alive and well in the eyes of the community, but in the eyes of God, they were dead (Revelation 3:1).
Apparently, God doesn’t see as we see (Isaiah 55:8–9), and He doesn’t measure success in the same way that we measure success. While there is nothing wrong with numbers, programs, big budgets and large facilities, a church can be successful in the eyes of God without possessing a single one of these qualities. What, then, is the measure of a successful church?
Now, these characteristics would make a successful church! Note: It’s not about size, big budgets, programs or facilities. Rather, it’s about inward transformation and spirituality. Here’s the best news of all: we don’t have to have large numbers, multi-million-dollar budgets or state-of-the-art facilities. The qualities that bring success and constitute greatness in God’s eyes are qualities that are within our reach.
