How Failing Helps Your Ministry

This past weekend I hosted a parent’s workshop on money management, it was a failure.  Now, before you say, “Chris, don’t be so hard on yourself.” let me explain.  Programmatically it was a failure because I tried to fit too much information in the time allotted.  I also tried to “speak from the heart”; therefore, my notes were jumbled and I tried to do too much on my own.  Why was I so off?  Doing this workshop was a first time deal, it was something completely different from what we usually do; therefore, it was a risk.
However, while it was a failure programmatically, it did open huge doors for how we can approach workshops with families in the future.
Again, the risk we took was that we did something different.  Granted we didn’t know what the response to the workshop would be.  We didn’t know how it would flow.  We didn’t know if it would be an overall success, which made it a risk.
It was a small risk; however, it lead to some great things.  Even if it means failure, taking a risk will:

• Allow Your Ministry To Grow – It’s easy to do the same old, same old, until everyone gets bored and decides to leave.  While ministry needs stability and consistency you still need to take risks.  One risk we all take is learning how to drive, it’s dangerous; yet, we all get behind the wheel of a machine that could kill us if not used correctly.  But, I don’t have to explain to you the benefits of driving, neither should I have to explain to you the benefits of a growing ministry.
• Provide Learning Opportunities – You take a risk and you fail, what happens next?  You get up and move forward having wisdom of something you didn’t have before.  Not all risks will end in failure, not all risks should end in failure; however, if you are stagnant you’ll never learn anything.
• Reveal What’s Real And What’s Not – Want to know who’s invested or want to know what systems are strong at the core then test them.  I want to know if the ministry I serve would survive without me, to find this out I’ll take a day off and let the team run it without me.  What I discover is where I’m standing in the way, where my team needs to be encouraged and whether or not I have the right leaders in place.

Allowing your ministry to take risks so that it can fail is a scary endeavor.  And while I’m promoting risk taking, it’s important to be wise about the risks we take.  Make sure you:

Gain Insight From Those You Trust
Do A Little Research On Consequences
List Out Pros and Cons
Spend Time With God
Plan It Out


What have you learned from a risk you’ve recently taken?