Failure - Part 1

The web-based Church Crunch (1/20/10) ran an article entitled "5 Ways to Fail as a Ministry Web Team." The 5 ways were…

 

1. Try to Do Everything

2. Say 'Yes' All the Time

3. Process? What's That?

4. Forget that Ministry is About Relationships

5. Be Clueless About the Rest of the Organization

 

I found that they proved just as true for the life of a Follower.

 

1. Try to Do Everything – God created us dependent on each other. No amount of Lone Rangerism will change that. How often in ministry do we say, "I must do it or it will not get done (or done right?") That statement makes us a messiah. We are not.

 

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

                                                1 Corinthians 12:4-7 (NIV)

 

2. Say 'Yes' All the Time – As a priest, I often find that people really think, that to be really holy, one says "Yes" to everything. As a result, we promise all sorts of things (and get brownie points for saying, "Yes") without ever really having the will or ability to do them all. People get hurt as a result. Relationships are strained if not broken.

 

Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned. James 5:12 (NIV)

More next Devotion…