As the diocesan mission begins in earnest, it’s likely that success stories of new, flourishing ministry initiatives will abound – God-willing. But it is also inevitable that, for whatever reason, some new initiatives won’t work, at least in human terms. And that means as a Diocese, we are going to have to learn to deal with failure.
‘Failure’ is an ugly, offensive word. Nobody likes to talk about it, let alone deal with it personally. Most of us have become skilled at sweeping our own failures under the rug, and at knowing how to avoid discussing the failures of others, lest we embarrass or offend them.
Yet as much as we would like to avoid the subject, it may be that this nasty little word is in desperate need of re-entering the Christian vocabulary.
This is not a call for some kind of masochistic focus on the negative that leaves us all thoroughly discouraged. But in a world where failure is sometimes an unavoidable fact of life, there must be a better alternative than pretending that it never happens.
We live in a world that worships and idolises our success stories and belittles those perceived to have failed. Our Christian culture is generally not all that different. As one commentator has noted, “the preoccupation with winning and success has infiltrated our conception of church and our views on evangelism.”
There is nothing wrong with wanting to succeed, particularly when it comes to that most important matter of seeing people come into relationship with God. But our society’s obsession with success means that people who endure failure in Christian ministry are often marginalised and made to feel ‘less spiritual’.
In this context, it is hardly surprising that many churches are reluctant to take the risk of trying something different – even though taking a few risks may be exactly what is needed for their ministry to achieve its potential.
As Al Stewart, CEO of Youthworks, says, few things restrict ministry growth as much as fear of failure. “One of the most significant factors in the decline of churches is a lack of preparedness to change, because change means pain and risk. As a Christian culture, we need to celebrate valiant attempts as much as success. As a Diocese, we need to be more generous towards failure.”
Mr Stewart speaks from first-hand experience. “Over a couple of decades at St Matthias’, many of the new initiatives we tried didn’t work. We regularly had to admit we were wrong on a new venture and go back to the drawing board, so to speak.
“I learnt that humble pie doesn’t taste too bad.”
This is just one of many examples where ministries have eventually grown through the pain and the lessons of failure.
If the Diocese of Sydney is to see any significant growth and change, we will need to know how to handle both success and failure.
We will need an environment where godly risk-taking is encouraged, and there is no fear of failure. In Jesus’ parable in Luke 19, the servant fears punishment from the Master (God) if he fails. But instead the servant is rebuked for not ‘having a go’ and using his resources to the full.
We will need a climate where we can discuss and learn from our mistakes as we attempt to take the gospel to our neighbours. Over the last few years a number of older, wiser Christians have told me that it’s not okay to fail in ministry from time to time – it’s compulsory, for that is how you grow and learn.
And where a godly initiative fails, we will need to encourage those involved to take stock and persist in their work, rather than quitting or feeling worthless. God’s love for us is not based on our works – he loves his people just as much whether they are ministering to thousands on the platform of Katoomba Convention, or battling to keep a small youth group afloat.
It is also worth remembering that what looks like a failed initiative doesn’t mean that God has failed. The gospel message brings division and causes conflict. Measured in human terms, this will sometimes look like dramatic failure.
Indeed, Jesus himself experienced some ‘failures’ in his ministry, and warned his disciples to expect the same (eg: Mark 6). It may be that in his sovereignty God is using our experiences to prepare us for bigger and better things down the track.
This is not the final word on coping with failure – in fact it’s barely even a first word. But it may be a starting point to help us to have the discussions we need to have, to share our experiences of where we’ve gone wrong and what we’ve learnt, and to remind each other that our definition of success or failure must be different to the world’s.
