PETE DOWNEY reveals his biggest ministry stuff ups
So, John Sandeman in a recent Southern Cross suggests we are defensive about failure, that there should be more stories of failure and more on how not to do things" .
No problemo there, John. The only question is" how much time have you got?
You see, I embrace failure. I wear it as a badge of honour that touches every part of my life. I encounter failure on a regular and epic scale, and am glad to oblige you with a snapshot of my failings in ministry, hopefully allowing others to learn from my mistakes.
Um" where do I start? There was that Christmas we took the fellowship caroling with a piano on a trailer towed behind an old ute. Of course, some rope to actually tie the piano down wouldn't have gone astray, as we discovered on about the third intersection. Have you ever heard the noise a piano makes as it separates into its constituent parts due to a massive and sudden impact? It was only slightly less distressing than the noise made by the minister when we told him what happened to his piano.
Mmm" there was the Youth dinner, where " in an attempt to raise awareness about global poverty " we charged the kids ten bucks and then fed them dirty water and dhal. The ensuing riot went down in parish history and is still talked about in hushed tones.
How about that fellowship house-party where we ran a wide-game in the dark? Two kids had to go to hospital " don't ask" barbed wire fence " so we bought the game indoors where we turned out the lights. The ensuing pile up lead to three asthma attacks and one unconscious girl.
That was the same weekend I ran a leadership exercise where we all sat in a circle and went around saying each other's strengths and weaknesses. The "strengths' bit went well, but the "weaknesses' bit fell apart in a flood of tears, accusations, denials, defences and sudden ex-friendships. I still shudder.
In Tokyo addressing a group of women… what I meant to say was "ladies' but I called them the equivalent of "you bunch of old crones'. Mmm, cross-cultural ministry at its best!
Look, I could go on. The outreach where no-one came. The anaphylactic shock guy at the annual dinner. The double booking at the house-party site. The nativity stable that fell over on some kids during a Christmas pageant. The time I was performing at an outreach concert, but left my guitar at home" I haven't even left the tip of the iceberg.
But I figure that if you aren't failing at things, it may be because you aren't actually doing anything in the first place.
And besides, I take solace in the fact that, as a failure, I am not alone.
All I have to do is think of Paul shipwrecked on a beach, Moses annoyed at his people for making an idol, Jonah getting chucked overboard, the disciples sleeping in the orchard or Samson regretting his blabbermouth to realise that things won't go right all the time. Remember, it was the same Peter who denied Jesus who went on convert three thousand at a sitting.
So maybe there is hope for us failures yet.
Pete's book, Everything You Want to Know About the Bible" Well Maybe Not Everything, But Enough To Get You Started, has just been released internationally by Zondervan. See [url=http://www.everythingaboutthebible.com]http://www.everythingaboutthebible.com[/url]
