SERIES: IT: Finding It, Keeping It, and Sharing It
(freely adapted from Craig Groeschel’s It: How Churches and Leader Can Get it and Keep it)
“YOU FAIL TOWARD IT”
SELECTED SCRIPTURES
OPEN
Graduates, we recognize your accomplishments. You have earned your diplomas and are ready to move on in life. We pray that you will live in a way that honors Jesus Christ. This morning, I’m not doing a message specifically for you. I originally intended to preach this message last Sunday. But as I worked on this message several weeks ago, I knew that it had lessons for you as well as the rest of our congregation.
We’re continuing on this morning in our series: IT: Finding It, Keeping It, and Sharing It. The first message was “What is it?” We defined it this way – “It is what God does through a rare combination of certain qualities found in his people.” Those qualities are: 1. A passion for his presence 2. A deep craving to reach the lost 3. Sincere integrity 4. Spirit-filled faith 5. Down-to-earth humility 6. Brokenness.
Our second message began a study of the traits that marked churches that had it and for us to learn how we can develop those traits in our congregation The first trait was a God-given, God-breathed vision and we said that “You Can See It Clearly.” The second trait was the importance of teamwork and we said that “We Experience It Together.” The third trait was innovation and we said “You’ll Do Anything For It.” The fourth trait was last week and it was about sharing the gospel because ‘You Want Others to Have It.” Today’s message is “You Fail Toward It.”
This morning we’re going to look at a concept that you may never have considered before: Failure is essential to success. Thomas Edison said, “To double your success rate, you must double your failure rate.”
I know that most of you have heard the old adage: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” That doesn’t mean “continue in failure.” It means try it again; just don’t try the same way again. Try a different way. Someone cleverly put it this way: “If at first you don’t succeed, try second base.”
Sometimes what appears to be a failure at the moment is simply success trying to be born in a bigger and better way. John Maxwell says “…..I know of only one factor that separates those who consistently shine from those who don’t: The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.” Maxwell also says, ““To achieve your dreams, you must embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you’re not failing you’re probably not really moving forward.”
Churches with it fail often. They have leaders who are aggressive, do-what-it-takes, think-skinned people who are willing to make mistakes. They’re not afraid to fail. In contrast, churches without it are usually the ones playing it safe, doing only what is sure to succeed.
I know it sounds counter-intuitive – it doesn’t seem to make sense – but failing can often help a church experience it. On the other hand, being overly cautious can kill it in a church.
I want to share with you some principles concerning failure. They will challenge you and stretch your thinking process. Hopefully you will learn that failure isn’t final as long as you keep on working, seeking, and serving.
EXPECT TO FAIL
I think that one of the greatest lessons that you learn in sports is that you can’t win them all. No athlete goes through an entire career without suffering a loss of some kind. The best basketball players in the world only hit about fifty percent of their shots. A baseball player that gets a hit thirty percent of the time is considered an all-star. Babe Ruth is one of the greatest home run hitters of all time. He struck out twice as many times as he hit a home run. But Ruth expressed his knowledge of how failure leads to success by saying, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
One of the best parts of being a parent is when you’re children start to walk There is joy in watching the process: rolling over to sitting up to crawling to standing up to finally stepping out with no visible means of support. When children take their first step, their eyes grow huge with a mixture of excitement and fear as they wobble around like a two-foot tall Frankenstein. And no matter what – whether it’s after the first step or the third step – they always fall. Always.
Imagine if, immediately following their first tumble, one of the children thinks: Well, I gave it a shot. Things didn’t work out. I’m not meant to be a walker. I guess I’ll just crawl the rest of my life.
The fear of failure causes many churches to think with this same kind of absurdity. And they continue to crawl while God wants them to soar.
Failure is simply falling short of your target. Rom. 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The word that is translated “sin” here in the original language means “to aim at a target and miss.” The term “fall short” is in the present tense and means a continual falling short. Not everything you do or try will work. Failure is part of the process of finding out what works. Accept it as normal and move on.
Most churches find success at some point. Things begin to go well and it seems that everything is working. But when the first failure hits, they go in reverse. They try to go back to the spot or time when things were working well and moving forward.
What happens is that the congregation gets disheartened by setbacks and begins to pull back and start avoiding risks. They stop growing as leaders and congregation alike freeze in time. They adopt the idea that failure is not an option. They fail to take into consideration that failure is a part of success.
The congregation seems to think it is risky to push forward. But to accomplish what God wants done, pushing forward is the only way to go. You see, it’s common to have several failures followed by a season of learning.
PUSH THROUGH FAILURE
Churches with it push through the failures. They know that setbacks can be setups for better things to come. They study their failures and learn from them. When churches with it fail, they try to fail forward.
How do you push through the failures? You seek God and He rekindles it in your heart. And when He does, He will speak to you. Maybe he already has. He’s directing you to step out of your comfort zone and do something in faith. If He’s not doing it now, He will do it soon. And when He does, mark my words, Satan will try to talk you out of it.
One of the enemy’s greatest tools is fear. You might ask, “How do I overcome this fear of failure?” Mark Batterson says, “The antidote for fear of failure is not success but small doses of failure.”
Think about it. What does a doctor do to keep you from getting certain kinds of diseases? He gives you an inoculation. What’s an inoculation? It’s a small dose of the disease. You get just enough to train your body to fight the disease.
The same thing is true with failure. Once you fail and realize it’s not the end of the world, you’re not as afraid to fail again. Leo Buscaglia said, “We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn’t. Success often lies just the other side of failure.”
Way too many times, we stop – we quit – before we make it to where we’re supposed to be. Winston Churchill said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” After we face a failure, we become afraid; hesitant to try another time. We tend to avoid the risk of failing again.
When we lived in French Lick, Indiana, there was a yellow jackets’ nest in the yard of the parsonage. I didn’t know it until one day I was out mowing the yard. I guess the lawnmower motor vibrating the yard where the next was brought them out and they stung me all over my legs. If you’ve never been stung by a yellow jacket, it hurts severely and hurts worse over the next couple of days. The sites on your skin where they sting swells.
Even though we destroyed the nest, I was careful every time I stepped over to that side of the yard. I was hesitant to even walk in that direction.
Too many churches become hesitant after a program or idea fails. This is especially true of the leadership of these churches. They’ve tried something that didn’t work the way they thought it would. Maybe they faced ridicule, gossip, or were even asked to step down from their leadership position. They’ve been stung once and they go out of their way to avoid a repeat.
One of the problems with failure is that you tend to second-guess yourself. Maybe I didn’t hear from God. Maybe I’m not gifted for this ministry. Maybe I’ll always be a failure. Maybe I don’t have what it takes.
It’s important to fight against the hesitance syndrome. Don’t get me wrong. It’s important to be prayerful and wise as you move forward. You’ll always want to consider the cost before doing something new. But you always have to remember the words of Heb. 11:6a – “And without faith it is impossible to please God.”
God is calling you to risk being stung again. And again. And to recognize that not only is this the best way to live, it’s the only way to live that pleases Him.
If you’re waiting for every venture to have guaranteed success, you’ll probably be waiting for the rest of your life. Sometimes the fruit of your steps of faith is measured not so much by what God does through you as by what God does in you
LEARN FROM FAILURE
As I said earlier, the idea of failure helping to lead to success doesn’t seem to make sense. But it’s true. Churches with it are often found to be dreaming big, experimenting with different methods, and testing the boundaries of what they can and cannot do.
They often fail but when they do fail, they tend to rebound quickly. Temporary failures are often followed by lasting successes. They try, fail, learn, adjust, and try again. After a series of accidental learning experiences, they often stumble onto innovative ministry ideas they never would have discovered with being willing to fail. Angel Brown said, “Discovering what will work often means eliminating ways that won’t.”
The best biblical example of this principle is found in Peter. Peter always had good intentions but often messed up in dramatic fashion. And even though he was far from perfect, Peter had it. I think what led Peter to it-land when others missed the on-ramp was his willingness to fail. If Peter were alive today, he would understand what Walter Brunell meant when he said, “Failure is the tuition you pay for success.”
Think about how many times Peter’s aggressive nature led to what we could call great “leaning opportunities.” One time, Peter offered Jesus some unsolicited advice that Jesus not give up his life. Jesus rewarded Peter by calling him Satan. I bet that got Pete’s attention.
Another time Peter jumped out of a boat (while the other eleven disciples played it safe) and walked on water toward Jesus before losing his focus and his faith and he sank like a rock. (By the way, Peter means “rock” in the Greek language). It taught him another great but wet lesson.
Do you remember the time Peter loyally defended Jesus by swinging his sword at someone’s head. He missed the center of the guy’s head and clipped off a piece of the guy’s ear. Jesus gave him more instruction.
After that, Peter failed in an even bigger way. He denied Jesus three times. The full impact of the lesson only hit Peter after the resurrection and Jesus forgave him. He made Peter the leader of his worldwide mission organization. That’s not how we normally reward failures – but God is different.
By failing forward, Peter was the guest speaker on the day of Pentecost and led 3,000 people to Christ and helped birth the church. Peter failed often. But he also learned from his failures. John Dewey said, “Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks, learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.”
We have to learn to see failed efforts as “experiments”. Every failure is simply an experiment. Experiments are set up to see what results occur and to learn from doing them.
Thomas Edison, one of the world's greatest inventors, successfully identified 10,000 ways that the electric light bulb would NOT work before he discovered the one that did work. When it didn't work the first time, Edison made a note of exactly what he'd done and what components he had used. Then he made an adjustment to the experiment and tried again. And when that "failed" he made a note of that, readjusted and tried again.
He kept learning from every experiment. He learned all the ways that it wouldn't work. He discovered all the chemicals and elements that wouldn't work. And each time he found a way that wouldn't work, he knew he was closer to finding a way that would work.
And for Edison, there was a lot of learning to go through. Nobody had done it before. He couldn't read a book about it. He simply had to plug away, failing and learning, until he and his fellow “experimenters” worked out the right way to do it.
RISK FAILURE TO FIND SUCCESS
Jesus told a parable in Matthew 25 about three household managers whose master entrusted each of them with “talents” of money. (A talent was a measure of gold or silver that was worth quite a bit in that day). Two of the guys risked failure and invested their master’s money. The third guy was afraid and he refused to fail. He played it safe, avoided risk and buried his talent – just like so many churches do today.
Then the master came back and called his employees to make reports on their investments. He rewarded the two guys who took the risk and weren’t afraid to fail. Listen to what happened with the one who played it safe.
Mt. 25: 24-30 – “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you
are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was
afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not
scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I
would have received it back with interest. Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten
talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
What dream have you buried? What burden has God given you that you’ve put aside? Dig it up. Pull it out. Dust it off. It’s time to start praying about your next risk. Is God calling you to start a new ministry within our congregation? Is God calling you to take a chance on someone? To reach out to someone who is far from God? Perhaps God wants you to have a tough conversation with someone.
Dig up your talent, the assets God has entrusted to you to use for his purposes. But remember, when you take a step of faith, the fear of failure might creep upon on you, as it does with most people. What if this doesn’t work? What will people think? What if this bombs?
You have to risk failure to find success. Michael Jordan is one of the greatest basketball players to ever live. He said, “I’ve missed ore than nine thousand shots in my career. I’ve lost almost three hundred games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
The easiest way to continue risking failure to find success is to learn how to fail gracefully. Here are five principles about learning how to fail gracefully. The first principle is: Call your new ideas “experiments.” Instead of making absolute statements about what’s coming, package new ventures as experiments. If the experiment doesn’t work, we still come away with something valuable, something we’ve learned and that makes it easier to explain to those who have concerns over the failure.
The second principle about how to fail gracefully is to create a culture in the congregation that allows failure. Teach people that failure is a part of success. Leaders should talk openly about their failures and what they’ve learned. Explain to people that as a community of believers seeking to please God, we’re going to err on the side of doing something and failing rather than being inactive and really succeeding at nothing.
The third principle about failing gracefully is: Don’t internalize failures. Remember, failure is an event, not a person. When failure happens, allow yourself to feel the disappointment. That’s just acknowledging reality. But don’t internalize disapproval of the failure. Just because you fail at something doesn’t make you a failure. Shake it off. And try something again.
The fourth principle of failing gracefully: Debrief after failures and successes. After every new venture, take time to debrief. List the learning points. What worked? What didn’t? What could you have done differently? What are the lessons you’ll carry forward? Don’t waste a setback by not learning from it.
The fifth and most important principle of failing gracefully: Try again. If you fall off your horse, you have to get back on and ride it again. Don’t let yesterday’s loss talk you out of tomorrow’s win. God is not finished with you. Most big successes follow multiple failures. Failure is often the price you pay for success.
CLOSE
Everyone knows what Post-it® Notes are. They’re those great little self-stick notepapers. Most people have Post-it® Notes. Most people use them. Most people love them. But Post-it® Notes were not a planned product.
No one got the idea and then stayed up nights to invent it. A man named Spencer Silver was working in the 3M research laboratories in 1970 trying to find a strong adhesive. Silver developed a new adhesive, but it was even weaker than what 3M already manufactured. It stuck to objects, but could easily be lifted off. It was super weak instead of super strong.
No one knew what to do with the stuff, but Silver didn't discard it. Then one Sunday four years later, another 3M scientist named Arthur Fry was singing in the church's choir. He used paper markers to keep his place in the hymnal, but they kept falling out of the book. Remembering Silver's adhesive, Fry used some to coat his markers. Success! With the weak adhesive, the markers stayed in place, yet lifted off without damaging the pages. 3M began distributing Post-it ® Notes nationwide in 1980 -- ten years after Silver developed the super weak adhesive. Today they are one of the most popular office products available.
God is an expert at making failure into successes. 1 Jn. 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Anna sings a song originally recorded by Lulu Roman that says, “Failure isn't final with the Father. Failure opens doors to start again. And falling only hurts for a season, and starting over brings new life again.”
