Seeking Success? Avoiding Failure? Where Is Your Focus?

From time to time we are honored to have a guest post on our blog. Today we are privileged to hear from Mr. Jim Neigh, CEF Vice President of International Ministries. Recently, Jim wrote an article for IM’s publication, ILink, that we thought would be an encouragement to you. We all deal with feelings of failure at times in our ministry, but how we deal with failure is often a matter of perspective. Following is Jim’s article on this subject, used with his permission.

A few years ago I came across a book by motivational speaker and writer John C. Maxwell titled Failing Forward (Thomas Nelson Publications). I highly recommend it for your reading (and your library). Reading the book started me thinking about how failure affects our lives and the ministry of CEF. The book caused me to ask myself questions like: How do I perceive failure? How do I respond to failure? Is failure inevitable? Do I allow failure to negatively affect future action? If I were to ask you those questions, how would you answer?

Someone once said that success is 99 percent failure. J. Wallace Hamilton said, "People are training for success when they should be training for failure. Failure is far more common than success." It is important that we be trained and equipped to be successful in ministry, and we need to be putting such training into action. But when one comes back to Mr. Hamilton's words "Failure is far more common than success" one realizes that we are too often ill equipped to deal with failure in our lives and ministry. That includes personal failure and failure in the lives of those we know and those with whom we serve.

How do you perceive failure? How do you respond to failure? Are you learning from it and getting on with your life and ministry? Or do you let it get you down and keep you from doing ministry as effectively as you could? Let me share a thought from Donald Luce in his book Time-Out Leadership (Thomas Nelson Publications).

"Are you dedicating your energies in the pursuit of success, or are you spending your energies trying to avoid failure? No one likes to fail. The disappointment and embarrassment can be debilitating for many, especially for those with big egos.

"How do you get over the failure complex then? Start by seeing each failure as an opportunity to learn. If you succeeded in everything you did on the very first attempt, you would have no basis for what success feels or looks like. You acquire new skills only by understanding the dynamics of why they work. That usually happens when you grasp the consequences of not applying the skill. When you get it wrong, you have the opportunity to evaluate what you can do to be better the next time. You get the chance to improve on your style or design. Celebrate failure. Through it you will understand success."

Think of men in the Bible who could have been considered failures: Abraham, Moses, David, Peter and many others. But they were not failures. They failed, learned from their failure and went on to be used mightily of God for His purposes!

The idea of using failure as a stepping stone to more effective ministry has been in the minds of leaders throughout the ages. Here are some short quotes. Read them slowly and think about the impact each statement can have in your life.

• "When we give ourselves permission to fail, we at the same time give ourselves permission to excel." - Musicologist Eloise Ristad

• "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Alva Edison

• "Failing doesn't make us failures. It makes us experienced. Failing should never be used as a means to disqualify." - Author unknown

• "What you have to tell yourself is, 'I'm not a failure; I failed at doing something.'" - Author Erma Bombeck

• "Teachability is an attitude, a mind-set that says, 'No matter how much I know (or think I know), I can learn from this situation.'" - Author unknown

• "Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ, and go out into the irresistible future with Him. Never let the sense of failure corrupt your new action." - Oswald Chambers

Consider these thoughts before the Lord in the light of Ephesians 3:20, then determine to "fail forward" to His glory and for the sake of the children!

One Bloom at at Time

In his book, Minute Motivators for Teachers, Stan Toler observes, “A gardener doesn’t raise a crop of roses. He cultivates the flowers one bloom at a time.”

What is true of gardening is also true of teaching. As you train your TCE students, you must cultivate them one at a time. Of course, when you work with roses you've got to expect a few thorns! We've all encountered those "thorny" students in our courses, haven't we? But God can helps us work around those obstacles as we seek to cultivate each student so he or she can blossom in the ministry of reaching children.

Following are some of Stan Toler’s suggestions for being a good trainer/cultivator, which we have adapted for our ministry as IOTs:

1. Teach Sincerely
Your TCE students are not only affected by your skills, they are influenced by the way you live. The greatest lessons you will ever teach will come from your own experience in reaching children. Your transparency before your students will be a greater source of inspiration than your facts or theories. Be real with your TCE students. Let them know about times you struggled as well as the victories you have achieved.

2. Teach Purposefully
Vibrant teaching focuses on building productivity and responsibility. It observes weaknesses and teaches strengthening. It recognizes possibilities and offers plans. It estimates damages and offers reconstruction. These are good principles to keep in mind as you evaluate and grade your TCE students. Remember, it’s not about the grades—it’s about encouraging your students and helping them strengthen their teaching.

3. Teach Methodically
Methods must fit the occasion and lessons must be aimed at the learning level of your students. And don’t forget, steady doses are better than overdoses. Don’t unload the truck on those TCE students! Layer your teaching a little at a time. Be clear and methodical, especially in those skill-building classes like Scripture Memorization and Bible Lesson Preparation and Presentation.

4. Teach Sacrificially
Every leader is given a moment—a window of opportunity that may never open again—to influence a life. You may have to subtract time or energy in order to add the resources for someone’s development. As you no doubt realize, being an instructor of teachers is not a 9 to 5 job! Some of your TCE students are going to require a greater sacrifice of your time and energy than others to succeed. Invest in your students—they are the future of your ministry!

5. Teach Sympathetically
The best teaching comes from the heart. Your students not only need your experience, they also need your attention. Teach them by not only respecting who they are, but also by what they will become. Howard Hendricks reminds us, “Teaching that impacts lives is not from head to head, but from heart to heart.” Let your TCE students see an instructor who is patient, kind and compassionate. What they learn from your heart will be remembered long after they have forgotten what they learned from your mind.

Someone once said, “We should be in the business of building people up. There are too many people in the demolition business.” You have a unique opportunity as an instructor of teachers to build child evangelists and disciplers. But you won’t accomplish that task if you view your students as a crop of teachers. Cultivate your students one bloom at a time and watch your garden grow and flourish!

Judas Asparagus?

Do you sometimes wonder if the children you teach are really listening and understanding what you say? We know it’s easy for kids to get the facts mixed up or to misunderstand – especially if we are not careful in our explanations and applications!

Here is an overview of Scripture from one child who was asked to write a book report on the entire Bible:

In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one,' but I think He must be a lot older than that.
Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did.

Then God made the world. He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars. Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel.

Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something. One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.

Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.

God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include: don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's stuff. Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.

One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town. After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.

After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.') During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Democrats. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.

Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead. Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.

Wow! Hopefully, some of his version of Bible events made you smile! But the unfortunate truth is that many children today are growing up with little or no true understanding of Scripture. It’s been said that the current generation is one of the most biblically illiterate in many years.

This is all the more reason for those Bible Lesson Preparation and Presentation classes you teach in the TCE courses! Be sure your teachers understand how to study God’s Word. Help them apply proper biblical hermeneutics as they work through the “RCA” steps of preparation. The more clear and accurate they are in their teaching, the less confusion there will be among the children.

We sure don’t want our GNC kids to be telling people about Judas Asparagus! Challenge your teachers to study hard and communicate God’s Word with clarity and simplicity.