We have a saying that is spoken frequently around our offices and among our leadership. It goes like this: Everything we do is an experiment. We're not afraid to try all kinds of ideas and new things knowing full well that some of them will fail. We like to say that we have 'permission to fail'. If you (yes, I mean you) are not experiencing some failure occasionally then you aren't really living the full adventure. I know you might not agree, but look at Jesus' ministry. He didn't have 100% success...one of his 12 guys was a miserable failure and several of the rest of them weren't much to write home about, at least not while he was walking the earth. Jesus pushed the envelope and, therefore, not everything he tried actually worked.
There is a peculiar story in Mark 6 where Jesus goes home - to his hometown - and finds rejection. Mark tells us this: Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. (Mark 6:4-5, NIV)
I find Mark's wording incredibly telling. Basically he's saying 'Jesus could not do any miracles there, except heal a few sick folks.' This implies that Jesus tried, but failed.
Personally, I hate failure. Because I want a record of successes, it would be easy to stick with what is proven and safe. What would we really accomplish in the world if we all lived with a motto like that, though? Where would the church be if it never took risks? What would be the state of our soul and the destiny of our eternities if God hadn't bet the farm and took the ultimate cosmic risk?
I'm not advocating that you should go looking for a colossal disaster to jump into so that you can say you failed at something. I'm just asking you to evaluate...when was the last time you really took a risk? When was the last time you tried something and failed? Do you grant others permission to fail...to they return the favor?
This has huge applications for the church. If we can't experiment, we can't change. If we can't change, we can't respond to our changing world. If we can't respond to our changing world, we can't do what God wants the church to do because we'll no longer be relevant. And if the church can't do what God wants the church to do, why are we here?
When a staff member or a leader in our church comes with an experiment that fails, I want to know what we've learned from it -what they learned from it. How did you grow? How can God use it for good? Looking for failure is stupid. Avoiding failure at all costs is just as bad.
Our church experiments...and there is much to show for it. But there are some hard lessons and some scars, too. I hope you grant me and the leaders here permission to fail.
Greater things are yet to come! God is so Good...He can even do something with our failed experiments!
Did you finish this post? Are you referring to something specific or a future possibility?
ReplyDeleteAngela
"...There is a peculiar story in Mark 6 where Jesus goes home - to his hometown - and finds rejection. Mark tells us this: Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. (Mark 6:4-5, NIV)
ReplyDeleteI find Mark's wording incredibly telling. Basically he's saying 'Jesus could not do any miracles there, except heal a few sick folks.' This implies that Jesus tried, but failed."
---- While I understand the overall point of your post, I believe it is misleading to say that Jesus failed. I believe this particular part of Mark 6:1-6 is more about the tension that exists between Faith and Unbelief and was an indicator pointing towards Christ's ultimate rejection by all of Israel. Jesus was not unable to perform miracles in Nazareth - he was not free to show that kind of power in those circumstances because of the absence of faith on the part of people in Nazareth. The performance of miracles paired with their apparent lack of faith would have had a bad result (would have been perceived as a 'deed of power' as opposed to miracle). "Jesus' power knows no bounds but the use of it does." The people’s unbelief excluded them from witnessing God's grace that others had experienced. Jesus didn't fail...people failed to believe in Him.