Too Many For God To Get Credit

Many times pastors and churches think it's their great numbers or ingenious methods that help them succeed.

So many of us believe this that we buy the books and go to the conferences to learn how to grow and implement these same ingenious methods.

Don't get me wrong. I love reading and going to conferences, but maybe the success that other pastors/churches have experienced ISN'T from the numbers or their amazing methods.

I read Judges 7 recently and it seemed to reveal the same thing.

It's the story of Gideon defeating the Midianites. I love this story because Gideon has 32,000 men he convinced to come and fight with him. That must've taken a lot of work.

And what does God do?

God tell him in verse 2 that he has "too many men for me to deliver Midian into your hands." God tells him that if he uses all 32,000, then Israel will think they did it in their own strength.

He tells Gideon to let anyone who's scared go home, so Gideon does. And 22,000 leave. Gideon is left with 10,000.

But God tells Gideon he STILL has too many men!

God tells Gideon to take them down to the water and he will tell Gideon which ones he can use.

300 of the men lapped the water with their hands to their mouths and all the rest got down on their knees to drink.

God tells Gideon to only use the 300 to fight.

The funny thing is that some people try and figure out, based on the drinking styles, what made the 300 better to choose over the other ones. But isn't that exactly NOT the point?

I don't think the 300 really had a better drinking style that made them superior fighters.

In fact, maybe they were the worst fighters to choose. That way God would get ALL of the credit!

The 300 take all of the gear from the others and make camp with Gideon.

God wakes up Gideon in the middle of the night and tells him to go take the Midianites. But he tells Gideon that if he's scared, that he can go sneak down near the camp with his servant - because what he hears there will encourage him.

What I love here is that God knows Gideon's character.
He's naturally afraid/fearful. Remember God found him hiding in a wine press! Because God knows all of this, he helps give him courage!

They go to the camp and hear a dream that one of the Midianites had and they hear the interpretation - that it means God had given the the Midianites to Gideon to defeat.

This gives Gideon courage.

He goes back to camp and breaks his men into 3 groups of 100. He gives them pots and trumpets. He tells them to blow their trumpets and break their pots (that had torches inside) all at the same time - at his command.

When they did this THE LORD caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords and flee!

Now can you imagine Gideon writing a book or teaching at a conference "The Best Technique And Amount Of Warriors To Defeat Your Enemy" and giving them the advice to have only 300 men with trumpets and pots (with torches in them)?

It wasn't the number of people that defeated the Midianites.
It wasn't the technique that they used.

In fact, the amount of people Gideon had and his technique - without God in it and with him - were the dumbest things to do!

It wouldn't work again for him or for anyone else!

It only worked because God was in the plan and God set up the circumstances for success.

If we want to have success as pastors/churches we need to learn from other's but we need to seek God for the strategy and plans that he wants us to implement.

The strategies and plans that are from God uniquely for us. The ones that he wants to use to maximize the circumstances he's set up.

That way God gets the credit. Not the numbers. Not the techniques... God.

He is the "x factor" to all pastors/churches who see success.

A book I'm interested in reading that talks about the "under the surface" reasons why churches succeed is called "Church In The Making". It's by Ben Arment.

In the book he looks at the unique situations and "behind the scenes" reasons why some church plants have succeeded or failed.

You can check out a whole series of blog posts he's done on some of these churches over on his blog. Go here.