How To Fail Before You Begin
September 23, 2009
- Simply refuse to have the difficult discussions.
- Simply refuse to change your methods.
How many of us have looked around and thought “Man, this just isn’t working as good as it could…there’s so much potential, but we’re just wasting it”?
How many of us, after thinking that, don’t say anything because we’re afraid to “rock the boat”?
It doesn’t matter whether it’s at work or home or in our marriages or in our parenting…or whatever. Comfort and familiarity can be our biggest enemies.
In the post on teens, sex, and the Church, I put forth the proposal that perhaps the Church should look at changing the way their message is disseminated, not what the message actually is. In some of the comments this idea was met with strong resistance. Changing methodology was equated to compromising the message. This attitude, I believe, is counterproductive and actually serves to sabotage any chance for success the Church may have.
Where would the Church be today if, say, the OT prophets didn’t speak out?
Where would the Church be today if Jesus didn’t tackle the difficult issues and turn the religious establishment’s way of thinking on its head?
Where would the Church be today if Peter didn’t stand up at Pentecost and preach to the multitudes?
Where would the Church be today if God hadn’t struck a murderer blind (Saul) and then use him to take the message of Christ to the world?
Where would the Church be today if Paul hadn’t parted ways with Barnabas and taken up with Silas and, later, Timothy?
Where would the Church be if Philip just ignored the Ethiopian eunuch?
Jesus, in his teachings, used different methods, different stories, different literary devices to convey his message.
Paul adapted how he shared the message of Christ depending on which Church he was talking to.
The Bible has moved from Aramaic, Greek, and Latin into almost every language on the planet and is presented in a number of different translations (KJV, NIV, NASB, NLT, ESV, etc.).
The commonality here is that the message is constant, it’s the medium and methodology that changes.
Another way to sabotage success is to assume that just because you discuss uncomfortable things, that automatically becomes one’s position. Just because you talk about something doesn’t mean you support it, condone it, or even think it’s a good idea.
However, it does mean that you’re confronting reality head on…..even that bit of reality that you prefer to ignore, that makes you cringe, or that you’d wish would just go away without you doing anything.
Let me put it this way. If your kid is struggling in a particular subject, do you continue to teach him the same way or do you look for other methods to get your message across?
If your child is engaging in undesirable and even dangerous behaviors, do you just keep on lecturing them or do you look for different ways to reach them so your message makes a bigger impact?
If your marriage isn’t working and your spouse just isn’t getting it, do you just resign yourself to the way it is, ignore what’s going on, or do you try to find a way to reach them to save the relationship?
People, businesses, Churches who have the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mindset will soon find themselves ineffective at best and irrelevant at worst.
The world is constantly changing. The Church does not need to change to conform with the world, but it does need to be able to change how it interacts with the world.
For example……
My church used to be part of a larger church based some 1000 miles away. Their model and their way of doing things worked great for their locality. However, it did not really translate well to Arizona. Instead of adapting how they did things, without compromising their message, they continued to do things the same way, stick to the same methods, and were left wondering why they weren’t seeing the same success as they did elsewhere.
Well, honestly, it’s because Phoenix isn’t Oklahoma City. The culture is different, the attitude is different, the demographics are different…. This requires the Church to be different in how it interacts with the locality. I’m not saying their way was bad, it was just ineffective in this climate.
There was substantial resistance to changing the way they did things, and, eventually, they realized the best thing was for them to, essentially, grant autonomy, allowing the church to adapt how it interacts with the locality, giving it the best chance for success. I applaud them for this decision. I’m sure it required some to admit that their way was wrong, and it’s never easy to do that, and allow it to change its methodologies.
Now, as I’ve said before, I don’t do change all that well. I stress over it, sometimes I fight it even though I know it’s for the best….that’s a trait I’m working on changing. I’m learning to embrace change, to be open to doing things differently, to listen to the advice of others so that I can grow, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.
Someone once said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
In my opinion, insanity is the attitude of guaranteeing your failure before you even begin.
Entry Filed under: Religion. Tags: christianity, Religion.
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed