Because Jesus Says So

Church, Ministry, and the Question of Success

Welcome 2025! It’s been more than a month since I have written on my SubStack. I just haven’t had the time. Beyond the busyness of the Holidays, my wife and I are days away from closing on the sale of our house in Delaware and closing on the purchase of a house in Wisconsin. So yes, I’ve been very busy but in a good way.

As we now start plodding our way through 2025, I’m still “new” as a lead minister serving with the Southside Church here in Milwaukee. As a new minister, the church is praying for a successful season of ministry in the coming years, as any local church would do. That has me thinking about what defines a successful ministry.

There are so many ways to approach the question of what defines successful ministry. First and foremost, are we faithful in living as followers of Jesus? And, of course, how do we discern what faithfully following Jesus involves? Well, that might lead to questions about serving. After all, Jesus was a servant. So, will others—both church members and the people in our neighborhoods—encounter the humility of Jesus in us? Will those we encounter know they are cared for, welcomed with hospitality, helped when in need, and loved as we love ourselves? In other words, will people see the kingdom of God in us? Of course, such questions are abstract, but people are not fooled. People can tell when a church is honestly trying to live as followers of Jesus, serving as Jesus did.

With all that said, I know that every church says they want to grow with more people becoming a part of their church. In twenty-five years of serving in ministry, I have never encountered a church that has said otherwise. Ideally, such numerical growth means there are new people becoming Christians and learning to live as followers of Jesus. Yet, numerical growth is still a desire of every church I know and one of the ways that churches often define success. That begs the question then of why might a church grow or not.

There are a myriad of reasons why churches grow or not. There is no shortage of books on the subject of church growth. There is nothing I am going to say that assures a local church will succeed in growing, especially in a post-Christian America where more people are rejecting church and the Christian faith or, at least, rejecting the version of Christianity they’ve often encountered in the U.S. But there is one thing that I am confident will either hinder a church from success or open space for the kind of success that matters where people see the kingdom of God in us.

In Luke 5, Jesus is teaching people along the shore of the Lake of Genesaret when he sees the fishermen coming ashore in their boats. So, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and tells him, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch” (v. 4).¹ The only problem is that Simon and his comrades have worked all night and caught nothing. It makes no sense to put their nets back into the water when they’ve not caught anything yet. But even after explaining to Jesus how they’ve caught nothing, Simon says to Jesus, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets” (v. 6).

If you’re one of those people who underlines or highlights phrases in your Bible, then you should really underline or highlight what Simon just said to Jesus. “But because you say so, I will…” Therein lies the key to the biggest matter that will either hinder a church from success or open space for success.

Simon’s “But” is not an objection in which he insists that his own reasoning trumps what Jesus has said. Rather, Simon is submitting his own reasoning to the instruction of Jesus. I am convinced that our willingness to say, “But because Jesus says so, we will…” is the submissive posture of faith that opens space for a church to serve as Jesus served. The results are ultimately up to God, but opportunities to serve as Jesus served open when churches have a submissive posture of faith that is willing to do what Jesus says even when it doesn’t make complete sense.

It is easy to say that we’ll follow and do what Jesus says, but it’s much more difficult on the front lines of ministry outside the confines of our church buildings. It’s not a shock that twenty-five years into the twenty-first century, many challenges facing churches now were once not as challenging. Most people are not waking up on Sunday morning with plans to attend a church service somewhere else. Many people are living in circumstances that are challenging to the Christian faith, raising questions about what it looks like to embody the gospel in a manner that’s faithful to Jesus and yet relevant to the circumstances of people’s lives. We inhabit a society that embraces religious pluralism, moral relativism, and political tribalism. And yet Jesus is saying, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be catching people” (v. 10).²

Fishing for people sounds kind of strange, but that’s what churches following Jesus are called to do. It’s discipleship, which I understand as learning to live like Jesus. The more both churches and the individual Christians that make up local churches learn to live like Jesus, the more attractive we all become to people who are looking for God, and the more we can help them find new life in God’s kingdom.³

Nothing I’ve said is a guarantee of success for any local church. But I am convinced that the one sure way to stifle any possibilities is to convince ourselves that the way of Jesus just isn’t realistic as we double down on our ways, telling Jesus, “We worked all night and caught nothing, so we’re done trying.” On the flip side, I believe that God opens space for all kinds of possibilities when we invest in the lives of people God introduces us to and say “But because you say so…”

1. Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

2. Taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, 2023.

3. Brendan Byrne, The Hospitality of God: A Reading of Luke’s Gospel, rev. ed., Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2015, 58, Whereas catching fish resulted in the death of fish, now Simon will catch people, but instead of death, Simon will bring people “to the more abundant life of the kingdom of God.”