Have you ever had the sneaking suspicion…

…that you’re failing at something?

If you have, great news!  I think we’ve all been there.  You just get the sense that you’re just bailing water out of some part of your ship to keep it afloat.  No, I can’t help bail you out, because I’m using my bucket to bail myself out.  Maybe that’s great news to you, maybe not.

When I was a kid, the adults just started getting on this kick about telling us that we were all “winners,” no matter how badly we performed.  Some kids bought into it (the kids who would’ve otherwise been “failures,” no doubt.)  And that thinking has grown and grown into a sea of participation ribbons and neutered school playgrounds.  Everyone feels special inside the cocoon of childhood.

This weekend, I spent a lot of time thinking about failure, and little league, and video games and Jesus, and I figured out a few new things that we all need to know when we feel like failures.

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Last week I asked if anyone felt like Jesus needed his driver’s license revoked…

And the responses flooded in.  Tons of people felt like they had given Jesus the wheel to steer their lives, and Jesus had crashed their lives right into a ditch.  Holy crap, if Jesus even still has his driver’s license, his insurance rates must be outrageous.

Now, some people had questions that we didn’t figure out, but we did figure out one thing…

…the ditch is real.  And no one likes being in it.

And as I read all of your comments and started thinking about the ditches my own life has hit, I realized that people almost always start believing a few things, mostly lies when they’re in a ditch.

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That's how he rolls.

So, I’ve got a question for you…

You know how some people like for Jesus to “take the wheel?”  You know, be their driver in life?

I guess that’s a nice sentiment.  Surrender, obedience and all that.  Maybe you like that Carrie Underwood song.  Maybe you like to think of Jesus as your driver.

Even if you never have thought of Jesus that way, many of you, my readers, have been at least trying to be Christians for a long time.  We’re trying to be Christ followers, disciples, whatever you like to call it.  Maybe we even let Jesus be our chauffeur around town…

But have you ever felt like Jesus took the wheel…and then drove your car into a ditch?

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I enjoy war movies.

Probably because I’ve never been in a war.  Now, I’m no fanatic.  But every once in a while, I can go for some Saving Private Ryan, or some Band of Brothers miniseries.

To me, these movies are more than the ‘splosions and guns.  What makes a great war movie is the camaraderie and loyalty forged between soldiers as they battle a common enemy.  That kind of friendship makes civilian friendships seem feeble and weak by comparison.

I used to think that kind of loyalty and brotherhood could be found in the church.  When I was eight years old, before I knew how politically incorrect it may have sounded, my favorite church song was Onward Christian Soldiers. Here I was, shoulder to shoulder with my brothers in Christ, decked out in our armor, weapons in hand, ready to charge the battlefield.  We had a visible enemy, Satan and all his minions.  I had the same gusto for taking down Satan as the soldiers of Inglorious Basterds had for killing Nazis.

It’s been a long time since I compared Christianity to a great army.  But it wasn’t until I saw a random tweet last week that made me realize the one thing that no military force in the world does except the Christian army…

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For the last few weeks, I’ve been covering all the ways I can think of that the church is failing big time.

We fail at our ministries, we fail at having the right priorities.  We fail at preaching, at praying, at being relevant, and reacting to criticism.  And in general, we fail to be Christ to those around us.

I’m wrapping up FAIL Month with three final thoughts today.

 Ignorance is bliss.

I opened up this blog series because I’ve noticed a whole lot of Christian boasting on the internet about their churches and ministries, and not a whole lot of people admitting to failure.  Everyone loves to talk about how God “showed up” at church last week, but then we all cover for God when He’s tardy or truant.  Unsurprisingly, my one little blog did not make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.  People have not suddenly confessed all their disappointments to all the online world.

I also pointed out I don’t really like George Barna.  Nothing against him personally.  It’s just his work that depresses me.  I just want to tell him that if he doesn’t have anything nice to say, he shouldn’t say anything at all, because everything he says just frightens and saddens me.  Every statistic that he publishes shows that despite all our best efforts and “successes” we boast about, the American church is shrinking really fast. 

Usually after reading a bit of Barna’s statistics, I have to listen to about thirty minutes of Glenn Beck, just as a little pick-me-up.  Something about his ranting about the imminent end of the world that just makes me want to prance barefoot through a meadow of daffodils. (more…)

As a pastor, I’ve had a lot of failed sermons.

I’d rather not mention them, or even think about them.  Chances are, no one else remembers them but me.  But they were bad.  But to my credit, I was young, inexperienced, and kind of stupid.  So you can cut me some slack.  And now I’d like to think that between sermons and teaching and other speaking engagements, I kind of know what I’m doing.

That’s why I can’t stand to listen to guys who have way more experience than me and still don’t seem to get it. 

I listen to a bunch of preachers.  Today, you have access to more preachers than ever before.  Between radio, the internet, and public access TV, any preacher can get a platform.  Yet one of the biggest reasons people say they left the church is lousy preaching.  It seems we’re going for quantity and not quality when it comes to sermons.  I’m not talking about lack of natural talent or giftedness.  I’m talking about preachers making some ridiculous mistakes to doom their sermons to failure.

I’m making a humble call to pastors everywhere to knock it off when it comes to these mistakes.

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