Last week I shared a list of behaviors that increase the risk of ministry and organizational failure. They caught my eye because I’ve lived them the past 30 years. Maybe you have too. The truth that taking time to think is a necessity has been hitting me over the head. So many things I’ve been dealing with could have easily been avoided. As I face my day, I’m also taking with me the warning that you haven’t always communicated when you think you have.
I also like the thought, Failed programs are a necessity for the lessons they teach us. Part of the price of succeeding is failure!
Recent comments from Marla, our blog friend, suggest that she’s learning about failure as well. Her response to my last post was, “I’m heading off to stave off a ministry failure right now… But what happens when, in spite of it all, ministry fails? Of course I know that all failure isn’t final…however, sometimes messes are left behind in the devastating wake of failure that have to be processed and cleaned up.”
We’ve all been there, right? Ministry, parenting, and life in general are all messy.
To help you sort through failures and better learn the lessons for success, we are hosting a pastor’s luncheon October 16th in Indianapolis titled:
“When Church Isn’t Simple”
Here’s a brief description:
Simplicity is in, complexity is out. Right? So contends Thom Rainer in his book “Simple Church”. While Rainer’s ideals are ideal, they aren’t easily achievable in the real world. Most churches aren’t simple. Church and life can be quite complex.
Getting rid of unnecessary ministry bureaucracies, and structures, seems very Biblical. But the real world gets in the way. The process is too often neglected. You can’t have a simple church without a transforming process. Transformation requires moving a church…
- Beyond consumption to Biblical community.
- Beyond mimicry to discover it’s unique code.
- Beyond dependence on staff leaders into shared leadership.
- Beyond institutional cloister toward a missional mindset.
- Beyond status quo into reinvention.
Kevin Ford (Author of Transforming Church and managing partner of TAG Consulting) and I will introduce key insights and resources that will equip you to achieve a church that is focused on its mission rather than maintaining its institution. And in the process you’ll learn to lay the groundwork for impacting missional ministry as well.
We’d love to have you join us. To reserve a seat, contact Lynn Noe at: lnoe@aspengroup.com.
Simplicity - ah yes, I remember the wonderful day I bought Purspose Driven Youth Ministry, the student version of Rick’s insanely good book. Within two weeks we trimmed the program driven plan into 4 main focused purposes. It really turned things around.
Maybe that’s why I love my church now - we do 4 things: weekend worship services, small groups, growth track, and the dream team. Everything goes back to one of those or it doesn’t happen. An 8 year old church plant that went from 4-10k in the last year certainly is up against a list of complicated challenges now that need to find their way back to simple. But I believe it’s the commitment to simple, to systems, and to great stewardship that will guide the church back into rythm.
Simplerly,
MT
Thanks for helping me focus during this amazing season of life. I’ve been watching two situations develop in my ministry community. One of them a woman overwhelmed by poor choices and the physical destruction of her dreams and plans for her family. The other is a moral failure that resulted from poor choices and the physical destruction of dreams and plans. The parallels of the two simultaneous situations were stunning. I wish I could write about them, but for their confidentiality obviously I can’t.
But here’s what I learned: failure and success are points in time. What looks like a success could turn out to be a failure, and what seems to have failed may just have not been finished. God has a weird way of turning situaitons on their heads, and we have to wait and see…be still and know.
Simple church, complicated church, mega church: our job is to always adjust and adapt and move from failure to success by just showing up day after day. God has always had a people, and he will move and use his church.
Hey Bartender…..good thoughts and helpful clarification. Simplicity and sustainability does begin with understanding how God made us and focusing on the things we can do well.
It’s interesting to note that when we do that well we typically grow and it all becomes complex again. It’s a continual cycle of learning…growing…and learning all over again…then growing again…etc.