In this post, I want to noodle around a bit with an idea and see what comes of it.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had several friends gently, lovingly, but forthrightly challenge my use of the word “failure” in a few of my recent posts. It seems that some have done so because they’re afraid I’m internalizing the word “failure” and while using it to describe a recent project, I’m also applying it in a self-descriptive way.
They’re doing their best to keep me from saying, “I am a failure.” Lord knows nothing good comes from walking around with that phrase rattling about in our heads. So I can appreciate that they’d want to prevent me from this form of self-mutilation.
However, I still don’t think it’s inappropriate to use the word “failure” to describe certain projects and experiments.
If I go out to the track later today and state that my goal is to run a mile in less than 5 minutes and then proceed to run one in five minutes and thirty seconds, I will have failed to achieve my goal. This doesn’t mean I’m a failure, but it does mean I failed to reach my goal.
If a scientist steps into a lab to test his hypothesis and finds that after a series of experiments his hypothesis isn’t validated by the data, then he can say that he failed to prove his hypothesis. It doesn’t make him a failure, but it does mean that he failed to prove what he set out to prove.
When I speak about a “failed church plant” I’m speaking about how we failed to achieve our overall goals as a community, one big one being to launch sustainable weekly gatherings. That doesn’t mean that everyone involved in the project is a failure, but it does mean that we failed to reach our goal.
I see no problem with using the word in this objective sense. It is bracing, but it is also square with reality.
Of course, history has proven that perceived failures can lead to other positive, if unexpected, outcomes. Even when used objectively, the passage of time opens up the word “failure” to subjective reinterpretation.
Failing to run a sub five-minute mile can create a greater sense of determination and perseverance in the runner who plans to come back to the track week after week until he reaches his goal. A failed scientific experiment may fail to prove a hypothesis and yet at the same time open the door to even greater discoveries. Only God knows what eternal fruit will result from a failed church plant.
That last sentence gets us down to the real business of this discussion.
Many of us are comfortable using the word failure in relation to athletics, or business, or science, but when it comes to the things of God, we balk, and understandably so. It is easy to oversimplify things and say, “The reason something failed is because God wasn’t involved.” But that doesn’t always square with reality either, especially for those who are close to the project. We experience God throughout the course of events, and yet we still fail to achieve our goals. I wonder if the reason some cringe when they hear the phrase “failed church plant” is because they do not believe it is appropriate to ever describe anything of which God is a part, as a “failure.” So they challenge my use of the word out of a desire to defend God.
But what if by acting on this admirable impulse, they are playing their cards a bit too early and inadvertently stealing God’s thunder? When speaking of failure, people of faith must always leave room for God to redefine the word for us. He can redefine failure as no one else can, but such redefinition belongs to him and him alone. Let us not presume to redefine our failures for God. Is it possible that when we jump in too soon and try to redefine our own failures, or the failures of others on their behalf, we blunt the force of the surprising twists God intends to give to the many failures we accumulate through the course of a lifetime?
Could it be that by boldly using the word “failure”, and always in the objective sense, we’re leaving room for God to apply his own subjective reinterpretation to it?
Jesus was a failed Messiah. For three days, there was no other way to describe him. His death on the cross left no other option. Then God stepped in and redefined Jesus’ failure as faithfulness and reinterpreted the cross as a symbol of victory rather than defeat.
That God says “resurrection” doesn’t mean we should stop saying “dead.” The former needs the latter to have any meaning at all. That God intends to redeem our disappointments and shortfalls doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t still use the word “fail.”
So this is what I say: Go forth and fail. Fail often and fail boldly. Do not shrink from calling your failure what it is. Hold it up for the world to see. Then place it’s dead body in the tomb and seal it with a stone.
What comes out three days later is entirely up to God.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
Agree.
Some people think that Eve didn’t have a choice when it came to the “apple”, others do. If you believe that she did have a choice, that God “intended” Man to live in sinless harmony with Him forever and we screwed it all up, then it is correct to say that God “failed”. Woah! You can’t say that! Blashphemies!
Failure IS an option. We’re all better as a result. Without failure, there would be no success.
To those who balk, get over it. God fails. We are made in His image. We fail. It isn’t a bad thing, its just a verb that can also be used as an adjective.
All I can say is, get to writing that book. I can’t wait to see the results – your blogs are compelling enough!
Wade,
Way to go! Remember I applauded you for failing?
I think every successful person is a conglomeration of repeated failure. The unsuccessful ones are those who fail and give up.
Walt Disney said that if he proposed an idea for Disneyland and the board unanimously voted it down, he would start work on it immediately!
Suffering 101 could also lead to a class called Failure 101.
I’ll say it again….I’m really proud of you!
You really were the only one who congratulated me for failing and celebrated my suffering! Thanks for being one of a kind Mr. Rush.
Wade,
Those who haven’t experienced failure are often those who’ve refused to risk anything for the kingdom (parable of the talents?). In our church planting journey we’ve experienced some beautifully painful failures and often they’ve served prophetic roles in our lives. Sometimes failure is just a result of the risky nature of living boldly. Sometimes failure is a result of goals that should be reexamined. At the risk of over-extending your metaphor, if your ultimate goal is to complete a marathon, the five-minute mile may or may not be the best indicator of progress towards that goal.
Some of our failures have helped us realize that the goals we set for our ministry in this area weren’t really all that appropriate for what we’d originally set out to do – they were just ones we adopted from the standard list of expectations of “church.” I’m not sure if that’s the case for you guys, but I’ll say this. It seems to me that with your stated commitment to stay in Austin (and the blessing of your wife having a job there that she loves) you may find yourself in an even better situation to plant the gospel in your community.
Thanks for the reminder to cultivate an appropriate theology of failure.
Now I was a fence sitter on this one. I hedged your failure a bit by saying it might lead to lessons learned and future successes, seeds planted, etc. But I really did say it was a failure. Just wanted to make that clear 😉
A wonderful post to read — as Kyle and I hold openly this new path God’s got us on… we may fail at Kyle and I’s desired outcome (time will tell) but regardless, its beautiful to know that God’s glory will further be revealed to us as He defines for us what this journey is all about.
Thanks for your encouraging words, my friend.
Great post Wade. I appreciate your willingness to process your journey “out in the open.” You have allowed all of us the opportunity to look over your shoulder and see how you are processing this experience. Very helpful for my own life and walk.
I’m glad you clarified this. You failed your own expectations, not God’s. You failed to meet your hopes, but you did not fail to keep moving toward becoming more like Christ.
Look back at New Coke. Was it a failure? In and of itself, yes… but the Coca-Cola company profited more than it ever hoped to when the re-emerged “Coke Classic” came out.
Your “new coke” didn’t work the way you wanted it to, but your “Coke Classic” is being built deep within you in the process.
Paul wrote Romans apparently motivated, in part, by the belief that he’d stop by there on his way to Gaul. He may have even felt that God was leading him that direction. He was wrong about that. Thank God he was mistaken, failing to make the trip to Gaul (so far as we know) yet writing such a masterpiece in his letter to the Christians in Rome.
Thanks to all for these comments.
Adam–great point about Romans! I’ve never thought about it that way.
Sam–I think we’re saying similar things, but from different perspectives.
Jim–we still need to grab coffee!!! Let’s make it happen in early January.
Krista–what exactly are you and Kyle up to these days anyway?
Matt–Thanks for making it clear! 🙂
Brett–We’re definitely keeping our eyes open to what God is up to around here.
Ashley–keep talking like that and people will figure out that we’re related!
Jeremy–great thought. Thanks for jumping in.