Genuine ministry is fraught with frailty, frustration, and even failure. The greatest failure, however, may be the failure to find the power for ministry in the spiritual rather than the physical realm. Misguided evaluation . Consider two opposite extremes. On the one hand, worldly standards of success too often replace spiritual evaluation.
Some churches fail to appreciate effective ministry in their demands for numerical results.
God's Old Testament prophets would not have fared well in many modern churches. On the other hand, some churches and ministers fail to understand the power and potential of effective ministry, and suffer from under-expectation. The ultimate measurement of ministry is faithfulness to God. Ministry which is faithful to God never fails. Faithful ministry brings God's power to bear in this world, and God promises increase as his word never returns empty.