Hard-core baseball fans debate which statistic represents the best measure of a great player: slugging percentage or on-base percentage, RBI's or stolen bases. Those devoted to ministry argue just as fiercely the key indicators of successful ministry: church growth or missionary giving, the number in the prayer meeting or the number in Evangelism Explosion.

We all yearn to see results from our labors. But what results should we look for? Perhaps the subject of ministry success is hard to talk about because it's more complex than any simple definition can capture.

Stuart Briscoe recognizes that complexity and offers us a glimpse at how he measures success (clue: it's not the size of the church's new auditorium).

This article is excerpted from Measuring Up, co-authored by Stuart Briscoe, Knute Larson, and Larry Osborne, which deals with the need to succeed and the fear of failure. It's the latest volume in the book series Mastering Ministry's Pressure Points, co-published by Multnomah Press ...