THE APPLAUSE OF HEAVEN AND EARTH
An interview with Max Lucado
Marshall Shelley and Brian Larson
July 1, 1992
Success and failure—Max Lucado has tasted both. He is widely known for his best-selling books The Applause of Heaven, Six Hours One Friday, and No Wonder They Call Him Savior. He is pulpit minister of Oak Hill Church of Christ in San Antonio, Texas, a congregation that averages over 1,000 in Sunday morning attendance. On top of that, as his most recent book cover says, "He is the father of three terrific daughters and the husband of a one-in-a-million wife." But he has also known discouragement. After serving a church in Miami, Lucado (it rhymes with "tomato") became a church-planting missionary in Brazil. He returned to the United States after three years of "the most challenging time in my ministry." On the kind of day you expect in San Antonio in January, strong sunshine with a warm blue sky overhead, LEADERSHIP editors Marshall Shelley and Brian Larson visited Max and found him with his tie loosened, his smile broad, and his heart ready to talk about the dangers and glories in the mountains and valleys of ministry. Do you consider yourself a success? A failure? Or do you even use those words to describe ministry? I was taught to measure whether you're a successful minister by footsteps and checkbooks, by the number of attenders at your church and the amount of money they give. So I've tended to take pride when we've done well and been ashamed when we haven't. But I know there is more to it than that. Success is relative. If I took a basketball and practiced until I could slam dunk it, for me that would be quite an achievement. If David Robinson slam dunks a basketball, on the other hand, it's admirable but not much of an achievement. Some people have used what God has given them better than others. Perhaps the best way ...
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