These words of Scripture invite us to find our true and lasting joy in the enduring spiritual heritage of God’s people. In a similar way, the Apostle Paul speaks of the riches of Christ’s glorious inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18). The Apostle’s words encourage us not to base our joy on outward appearances of success – the horizontal dimension, if you will – but on the vertical dimension of Christ’s delight in his people, now and forever.

Sure, it is good to consider the horizontal dimension of church life. We should rightly be concerned about the current state of the church in New Zealand. According to Dr Geoff Troughton in his presentation to NZCN’s New Zealand Christian Leaders’ Congress last year, the number of those identifying as Christians in New Zealand has for the past 50 years declined by 1% per year. But just as concerning, of those identifying as Christian, it is likely that less than half have attended a church gathering in the previous month. The sobering reality is that, as churches, we are not doing very well even among those who identify as Christians!

What is to be done? Yes, we need to search our hearts about whether the church is faithful enough, prayerful enough, committed enough, and pro-active enough. Quite likely we also need to change how we go about some things.

But one thing is also for sure, we need to look to Jesus, the Lord of the Church, and to continue to find joy where the Lord finds joy. In Luke 10, the returning seventy-two disciples were rejoicing in the success of their ministry, but Jesus reminded them that their true joy was to be found not in their effective ministry, but in the joy of their salvation (Luke 10:17–20).

Distinguishing the horizontal from the vertical helps prevent us from conflating worldly success with God’s blessing, or the opposite, and helps us not be too frustrated and depressed when things do not go as we would have hoped. Whatever the future of the Church in New Zealand, God has that in hand, and true joy in ministry comes when we align our joy with that of God’s delight in his own inheritance: those who belong to him in Christ.