Personal Reflection on Success

May 18th, 2009 in Opinions By Henry Kaestner

I write this entry as I try to assimilate a Sunday school lesson that I received yesterday. The teacher, an elder in my Church, was going through the 4th chapter of James along with the help of past sermons by our senior pastor, old writing by Jonathan Edwards from 1747 and even some Tim Keller, for good measure. I found all that he shared inspiring and convicting at the same time, but it is one specific subject that has stuck with me since.

In it is the admonition to not be “of this world.” The one application in my life that is often times most “worldly”, is the way that I judge success or failure. This is important to me as we contemplate the success or failure of the rollout of the Success Grant, and the “worldly” target of an arbitrary number of people to help seed the concept of this program, (http://www.durhamcares.org/index.php/grant/). Candidly, I’ve been slightly discouraged at the rate of pick up, for what we think is a very unique and effective way to give to charities. I’ve been confused by how easy it was to get 350 folks to register for the ESPN DurhamCares pool, yet so challenging to get the word out about the Success Grant program.

In an effort to boost awareness of the Success Grant program, we’ve offered up my hair and a party with a live band at the American Tobacco Complex (on the terrace next to Tyler’s) this coming Thursday. I think that both are fine promotions and I do look forward to seeing so many friends and folks very interested in caring about Durham on Thursday.

Sometimes it is absolutely wonderful and awesome to see how God humbles us, and I am particularly grateful for being reminded of this so early in DurhamCares history. For what we work toward should not be about the Success Grant, the success and popularity of DurhamCares, me nor my hair, or frankly even about Durham. It SHOULD be about glorifying God. For it is the desire to glorify him with our time, talents and treasure that led David and I to start DurhamCares.

So, we may very well hit our goal of 350 individuals pledging through the Success Grant program, and my hair may very well come off with hoots and hollers on Thursday. That in and of itself though, will not be success; however, it should make for some good entertainment. Success will come from the Kindgdom of God being ushered in to Durham where our citizens will band together, lift up the name of God, celebrate in unison the Good News and love our neighbor as ourselves. We’ve got quite a long way to go and I’m thrilled to be on the journey with all of you.

Comments

Henry, thanks for your open and honest reflections on how "success" fits in with the expansion of God's Kingdom on earth. It is a regular challenge for us as we do our work in Guatemala. There is the "measurable" (ROI) side of our work that we want to present to people and the immeasurable transformation that happens in the lives of people (like that which is happening through the great organizations being funded and served through DurhamCares). I think it is healthy for us to regularly consider, talk about and pray about that tension.

Posted by billkcummings on 05/18 at 12:04 PM

Henry, Not living in Durham right now but think Durham Cares is fantastic and the Success Grant program specifically is extremely smart and will have a tremendous impact on Durham. I love your honesty here - it's tough, especially in the non-profit or faith based sector, to appropriate categorize "success". I think you and the DurhamCares team are doing an admirable job in attempting to put metrics to orgs that may or may not have had this type of analytical feedback before. But I think there's something to be said for not letting a desire to "see the numbers" get in the way of what might be be brewing beyond the near term or what we can see. It's something churches struggle with all the time - is success more warm bodies on Sunday? Or more people plugged into community groups, volunteering, etc? Or perhaps an even more intangible metric like "lives changed". Regardless, you seem to hit the nail on the head here: "Success will come from the Kindgdom of God being ushered in to Durham where our citizens will band together, lift up the name of God, celebrate in unison the Good News and love our neighbor as ourselves." Amen brother.

Posted by zackmans on 05/18 at 10:15 PM

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Personal Reflection on Success