Failure
This was the topic of our Downtown Lunch Club. It was the last one for me here in Denver. I guess I’ll have to crank one up in Topeka.
How is failure framed in your work culture? Is it seen as an event? I stole this straight from Seth Godin’s blog. Is failure seen as a learning experience or something that should always be avoided? How do you create a culture where it is okay to fail? Are there limits to how much failure is tolerated?
How did Jesus deal with failure? How many different ways did Jesus deal with failure? How could that be translated in the workplace?
Lots of great insights and stories hit the table.
One question I had as I left the lunch was this – why in the business world failure is seen differently than in the church world? Let’s say we started a program that halfway through it we realized was a failure (it cost too much, demanded too much volunteer time, had little to no ‘bang’, wasn’t accomplishing the set out goals). In the business realm, it appears easier to stop that program and reallocate the resources to something else or create a new something else that would accomplish the goals.
In ministry, why is the general response to be keep that program on life support until the very end? Is it the relational investment? Don’t businesses have the same kind of relational investment? Or is it the culture that the program is started in? Would it be possible to do ministry where the mission so marinates everything we do that we are able to evaluate, change, reallocate resources, maybe even end certain programs so that we could continue to do (or improve) other things that DO accomplish our goals without the dramatic explosion of emotions that normally encompass change inside a church?
I’ve always tried to create a culture where failure isn’t the worst thing that can happen. In fact, I try to embrace failure as an opportunity for something better. It’s gotten dicey a couple of times. One particular instance comes to mind immediately. I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this story before but I can’t find the link and besides that – it’s worth retelling.
We had a middle school lock-in and we had a couple of our upperclassmen help with the entertainment. These two guys were juniors in high school at the time, were leading their own small group. By 10 am the morning after the lock-in, I started hearing from some parents who were very angry about the night before.
Turns out that these guys showed a PG-13 movie. Not just any PG-13 movie, but Austin Powers: Goldmember at a middle school church lock-in. It was a dumb, bad decision. Quite a few parents were ready for blood and on a certain level, I didn’t blame them.
I had two meetings that week. The first meeting was with the two students. It wasn’t pretty. They got lit up pretty hard by me. I let them read the emails I was getting from parents. They understood.
I then turned around and met with the parents and I took responsibility for it. Told them it was my fault. It was – I left those guys in charge, trusted their leadership and it turned out badly. But it also allowed me to tell those parents that I would take the risk again because I believed if students were given the opportunity to lead, we’d see awesome things take place for God. So while I was sorry, while I had made a mistake this time, I wouldn’t stop putting students in charge of ministry.
We actually had a few families leave the church because of this.
Fast forward 1 year later and the same two guys are feeding the homeless underneath the Broadway Bridge in Little Rock. They take their whole small group of teenage guys to do this every other Tuesday night. That turns into a youth group project making beds for a shelter.
All of that to say – leaders must be able to see past the failure to the value beyond it, to the possibilities beyond it. It’s on us to create cultures where failures are not the final word but rather opportunities for something greater.
9 Responses to “Failure”
One question I had as I left the lunch was this – why in the business world failure is seen differently than in the church world?
My Answer: Relationships. It might seem like relationships are big int he corporate world, but that’s in a different context. if my boss says to stop working on something, I stop–I can’t exactly take my ball and go home. Not always the case in the church world (or at least we’re afraid it isn’t the same–maybe it’s more like that than we think and people just wish someone had the brass to step up and say stop??).
Relationships – it is what makes the “church” experience deeper but it can cloud the real picture.
We can care TOO much about relationships that we forget the ONE relationship that is most important.
Maybe that’s part of the issue as well.
“In ministry, why is the general response to be keep that program on life support until the very end?”
because its always been that way, of course!
hehe, but really, in all seriousness “programs” inside the church operate from an understanding that God is behind it/them in the minds of church folk. so a “program” might start off inspired, but then doesn’t continue with the “results…” it is my experience, brief as it is in ministry, that if it worked at one point and people had real life change/transformation through the Spirit’s working in this program at one time, then it will always work… and we’ve traded God’s lead for our own idea of a “gold mine…” we’ve traded a relationship with a thing. my question is how can we change attitudes of church folk to see that perhaps, just perhaps… culture and people change… and so perhaps the Spirit might do some work in different ways too to reach those ever changing people and is our job to follow the Master as we attempt to make Him known… and our programs need to have a healthy “we can let this go” for “what is God wanting us to do now” approach.
Wow! your last paragraph is going into my favorite quotes book. I also hope to get it into my brain and heart.
I had written several paragraphs and hit the wrong key and it went away. I thought what I had said was great.
Sorry, but I don’t feel like writing it again. O! I do remember what I had written. This is a inside joke.
Very good article and I”ll just say Amen to it and leave it at that.
Well, my 2 pennies:
Consequences play a huge part in the difference. If we fail at something in our jobs or our businesses we risk losing our livelihood. If I continue to churn out solutions that don’t work, I will eventually get fired or my business will fail. There is a sense of urgency in business that we lack in ministry.
But what are the real consequences of a failed attempt at ministry? A few less kids in the youth group? Less people at the fellowship dinners? One less night a week of that pesky life group?
The real consequences are the potential loss of souls, but we’ve become so accustomed to that thought that it doesn’t really bother us as much as we let on.
For people in the ministry it is more naturally a big deal, but to “Joe Congregant” it doesn’t matter or we know we can shift the blame to the pastors and leadership if things get hairy. We would much rather be comfortable and do things we know how to do than to do something we don’t understand because we don’t have a real grasp on the consequences.
I’d love to sit in on a discussion about this one, because I have several rabbit trails I could go down, but I’m not sure exactly where any of them end up.
The double edge sword of working within non-profits is this – volunteers give their time because they believe in the mission (ideally).
Yet, it’s rarely the mission we leaders point to.
We point to the ‘benefits’ of serving. Which paints us in a corner when the mission is getting missed and we have to change or kill a program that we earlier sold as a ‘benefit.’
I think the first step in changing the culture is to lift up the mission/goal NOT necessarily the benefits of serving.
[...] This is becoming one of those posts that is gaining a life of its own. In the comments I made this observation – the double edged sword of working with non-profits. [...]
I remember our intern days when Wilkes used to say “People over programs.” The problem is that leaders, or at least me, like it when everyone’s “happy.”
Jesus didn’t make everyone happy. He didn’t give in to everyone else’s idea of what He was supposed to do or be. He remained focus on His mission.
He worked with a volunteer staff of rag tags and un-cultured folks, let them make mistakes, invested in them, restored them and released them.
Maybe there’s a book or something in here!