Failing Forward

August 25, 2008

Failure? Can we say that word? Isn’t it anti-spiritual to use failure when we speak about the things of God? While we may not come right out and say it, we think it. We use different phrases and words to candy-coat something that didn’t work out well. Like; “We will never know this side of eternity.” Or “We will never really know how many lives have been touched by what we did.” Maybe we will even say “Well that is just they way things will be as the end draws near.” It seems to me that in our attempt to super-spiritualize or rename a flat out failure, we miss the lessons that we might have learned through simply admitting, “We failed!”

Why do we fight so hard to keep from admitting failure? I believe that we have somehow we feel that we have to save God from embarrassment.  The question you have to ask this: What would be worse, trying and failing, or never trying at all? What do you think God would celebrate? A quick look at parable of the talents will give us the answer. God never called us to be successful, rather He called us to be obedient. That great theologian, Woody Allen said, “If your not failing every now and again, it’s a sure sign you are not trying anything very innovative.”

Why all this talk about failure? Because church planting and failure are almost synonymous with one another. Church planting is rife with failure. In fact, failure can become the church planters greatest friend, if they leverage their failure. But it is in that failure that you learn the greatest lessons.  Robert F. Kennedy once said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” We tend to think that failure is to be avoided at all costs, but often our greatest success is birthed through our failure. If you are never failing, you are probably not achieving anything of any great value either.

Posted 8/25/2008 in Church Planting

1 Comment - Add Comment

Comments:

     Wowza - way to put it perfectly. So many of us are afraid of failing, but strive so hard to achieve things. "Without failing, you are probably not achieving anything of any great value"