An Unstoppable Force by Erwin McManus
Empowering Spiritual Entrepreneurs
If you can affirm everything that isn't changing, while highlighting something that strategically is changing, you'll more easily gain adherence and support.
Through pilot projects, an apostolic environment can be introduced and affirmed one layer at a time.
When a particular project fails and you acknowledge its failure but don't lose hope, it does two things. It teaches your people that you are more committed to the purpose than you are to the particular project. And secondly, it demonstrates to them that you have integrity when faced with failure and successes. When you acknowledge failure for what it is, you gain the confidence of others as you speak on God's behalf.
In many situations, failure is the very thing that restrains God's people from doing great things for God. They've been taught that failure is equivalent to sin, and so they'd rather not try at all than risk failing. When you face failure with humility and hope, you teach others how to risk. When you affirm those who risk great things for God and count them as successful even if their particular endeavor has failed, you have affirmed something far deeper than any particular project or strategy could every encompass. It is not so much the experiment that is of greatest value, but the affirmation of spiritual entrepreneurialism among God's people.
This is such an important truth and I think part of it has to do with trust. When you trust an individual to do what God has called them to do and let them do it, it gives them the freedom to soar and do great things for God. They're not working under their own power anyway, they have God on their side. Any failure is just an opportunity to learn. Any success gives glory to God. It's a win-win situation.
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3 comments:
I'm finally all caught up on everyone's blogs, but I had to go back and comment on the failure thing. I haven't so much been taught that failure is equivalent to sin, but what I have either been taught or just assumed is that failure means God wasn't in it. Maybe I just thought God called me (or us) to do something (my thinking goes), but if it doesn't work our the way I thought it would, I was obviously mistaken. I'm not so much afraid of failure, I'm afraid of fooling myself into thinking I'm hearing from God. It's going to take a while for me to reprogram that kind of thinking. Any thoughts?
I guess my view is not quite so hard on myself. I do believe there are times when we miss God or fail to seek him and land on our faces. I've done that before. I also know there are times when something happens, maybe at work when I'm just humming along and I mess up. Like this week I was asked to order 2 books and I ordered one right and when wrong. It wasn't a God thing where I had to seek him, my human nature just blew it. I was sorry, received grace and forgiveness, forgave myself, ordered the right book, and didn't dwell on it. I was more referring to the human nature of making mistakes rather than no seeking or hearing correctly from God. You bring up a great point that I didn't consider in the blog. Thanks!
That makes sense. Sort of like the dilemma about did Jesus ever stub His toe, and stuff like that. Probably He did, right? He just didn't say a bad word like I probably would!
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