We all have seasons in ministry when we try things and they simply don’t work. I know we use ideas like “if just one person heard about Jesus” to make ourselves feel better but the reality many times in ministry is that we fail. There are just times when things don’t work well and we experience a setback…it’s never fun!
I’m a football addict so every week I watch my favorite teams go for it during the fall. It’s my favorite time of the year but it’s also a season where I rejoice with each victory and hurt with every loss. What I have learned over the years is that good teams take those losses and allow them to reveal what they need to work on before the next game.
High impact ministry leaders will do the same thing as high impact coaches. We have to allow failure to reveal when we need to work on as a ministry.
- Failure REVEALS what we need to improve. // when things are working we rarely have the courage to be critical. Failure pushes us to evaluate everything.
- Failure REVEALS the character of your team. // it’s a sad fact but adversity reveals the true character of the people on your team. Failure stretches us.
- Failure REVEALS our motives. // we have to know why we do what we do. Failure pushes us to ask ourselves hard question and search for our real motivation.
- Failure REVEALS what you may need to quit. // there are times when we just need to have to courage to quit things that don’t work anymore.
Experiencing failure is never a fun thing but if you are willing to learn then it might actually be healthy for your ministry. Fail forward and keep improving!
