The bottom line does not always give an accurate assessment of success or failure.
When we gauge success strictly by the numbers we miss how God works to achieve His will. To God, success is found when husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church, when wives submit to their husbands as to the Lord, when children obey their parents, and when fathers train their children up in the Lord.
Success is found in the moral and ethical behavior of Christians in the world.
When Christians feed on the word of God, mature in their faith, and the pattern of leadership is followed, God sees success.