Recently I failed in ministry:
I met a man at McDonalds, John was the name he gave. John engaged me as I stood up to refill my cup with water and asked what I was reading. As I filled my glass I told him it was a Kindle, of which he had no idea what that meant. John asked for any spare change to buy a meal. I did not have money but I had a gift card to McDonalds with just under $10 on it. I handed John the gift card and walked out. I failed because I had the time, John engaged me in conversation and I did not engage him. I failed to build a relationship and rather kept John's exchange with me at the level the cashier might have when he gave John the gift card back.
But really this is not the type of failure I am talking about in ministry. I wonder when were the times when we stuck our neck out and tried something new and that attempt failed. When did we try to enact new or alternate ministries in order to help build new ways to see the world and this attempt just did not work out?
Recently I failed in this way:
I failed when I put information in the Church newsletter which challenged the community to become and live into the calling of a "Cultural Architect". Little did I know that few people read these articles and the only feedback I received was two comments. First - "I liked one of the articles". The other - Your language is not accessible.
I count this as a failure in that it has exposed much of my hand and what I feel called to do and be at AHUMC and I have not been able to find or identify the "early adapters" of AHUMC who can help me enact these cultural shifts. I failed to articulate clearly and I have failed to inspire much of anything. It makes me wonder why I even should take time to write in the paper at all. At least with this blog I know there are at least 50 people each day who check in, who knows if those who check in are inspired in any way at all. I wonder if this experiment in blogging is a failure for what I envisioned.
This is just one of the more recent failures I have noticed in my call to ministry. What about you?