"Life Lessons From the Bible" Part 2
"Failure"

How many of you have never failed at anything? You've never, ever failed. Would you raise your hand?

Every one of us has failed at times, haven't we?

Failure is a part of life. We fail in little ways: We give the wrong answers to some questions on a test. We miss an appointment. We forget to close a window or lock a door.
But sometimes we fail in bigger ways: Our marriage fails. We get fired from a job, or do poorly in a chosen career. We haven't been the father or mother we wanted to be. We want to live for the Lord, but we keep giving in to the same sins. Maybe there are days when we feel like our whole life is a failure!

Because the Bible is realistic about life, it tells many stories of people who have experienced failure, just like us. We'll look at just one these people today - his name is John Mark.

We first meet John Mark in Acts, chapter 12, where it says he was in Jerusalem, in the home of his mother Mary, and believers were gathered there for prayer. Soon after in the Book of Acts it says he accompanied his cousin Barnabas and Paul on a missionary journey. Acts 13:5 says, "When they (Paul and Barnabas) arrived at Salamis, they
proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them." We don't know for sure what John did as an assistant. Did he make travel
arrangements? Care for food and lodging? Assist with baptisms? Did he teach? The word "assist" or "assistant" (Acts 13:5) often means a person who handles documents and delivers their content to others, so he probably did some teaching.

But something happened along the way. Acts 13:13 says, "Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem." We aren't told why John Mark left and went back home. We can only guess: Did he find the rigors of the missionary trip too hard? They were heading into dangerous territory - was he chickening out? Was he annoyed with Paul? Paul wasn't the easiest guy to get along with! Was he just someone who had trouble finishing what he started? We don't know why, but he quit on them. And this generated some real bad blood between Barnabas and Paul when it came time for the next missionary trip!

"After some days Paul said to Barnabas, 'Come, let us return and visit the
believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see
how they are doing.' Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark.
But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in
Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work. The disagreement
became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him
and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers
commending him to the grace of the Lord" (Acts 15:36-40).

I can imagine the heated discussion between Paul and Barnabas. Barney says, "Now that we've got our plans set, I'll tell John Mark to start packing". Paul replies, "Oh no you won't! He's not going with us this time!" "Why not?" Barnabas responds. Paul: "You know why not! He deserted us!" Barnabas (who is known in the Bible as "the encourager") says, "Well, let's give him another chance to prove himself." "What!" Paul interjects. "And mess up our plans again! No way. He's not going to leave us in the lurch a second time! He failed us once…never again!" And these two Christian leaders were so divided in their views that they split up and went their separate ways.

Mark had the chance of a lifetime to accompany the greatest missionary of the early church (the Apostle Paul), and do something worthwhile - and he blew it. He failed.

What do we do with failure? Being human means we're going to fail at times. Sometimes in the little things, sometimes we fail in the big things that really matter. So what can we do when we fail? Here are some things:

Try to keep a proper perspective. For instance, it's one thing to say, "I have failed in this particular thing." It's another thing to say, "I am a failure." We may have times when we're so depressed about a particular failure that we feel like our life is a total failure - that we're a failure at the core of our being. But that attitude is not helpful, nor accurate. I doubt that anyone fails at everything!

Let me tell you about a man. When he was 7 years old his family was forced out of their home on a legal technicality, and he had to work to help support them. At age 9, his mother died. At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. He wanted to go to law school, but his education wasn't good enough. At 23 he went into debt to become a partner in a small store. At 26 his business partner died, leaving him a huge debt that took years to repay. At 28, after courting a girl for 4 years, he asked her to marry him. She said no. He tried twice to get elected to Congress and failed. At 37 he was elected to Congress, but 2 years later he failed to be reelected. At 41, his 4 year-old son died. At 45 he ran for the Senate and lost. At 47 he failed as the vice-presidential candidate. At 49, he ran for the Senate again, and lost. At 51, he was elected President of the United States. His name? Abraham Lincoln. He failed in many things, but would you say his life was a failure?

Try to keep a proper, balanced perspective.

Even Jesus failed. It says that in His own hometown of Nazareth "he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them" (Mark 6:6). He could have easily felt like a failure because He couldn't heal but a few people there. But it wasn’t His fault. The next verse says He marveled because of the people's unbelief. Sometimes we feel like we've failed, when in truth, the outcome really wasn't in
our control. So try to keep a realistic perspective.

Whether or not you’re thought to be a failure may depend on whom you ask! You ask Paul whether John Mark was a failure and Paul would no doubt have said, "Definitely". But you
ask Barnabas, and Barnabas might have seen things differently.

Norman Vincent Peale wrote a book called The Power of Positive Thinking. His manuscript was turned down by 18 different publishing companies. In disgust he threw the manuscript into a trash can, but his wife Marquette went to get the manuscript out of the can. Rev. Peale told her to leave it in the can, so she took the trashcan to another publishing company. They published the book. It sold 40 million copies! To 18 publishers, he was a failure as a writer. Publisher #19 thought otherwise.

When I was 30 years old I left pastoral ministry. I was serving a church, and was in such a frame of mind that I just had to get out. I felt like a failure. Nancy and I and our two-year old son moved to Lancaster, and I got a job in the trust department at Fulton Bank - as a trainee. I felt more like a failure for having to start over in a job I knew little about. Then after about 6 months I had a different outlook and decided to get a church again, but not much was available, and I was appointed to a three-point charge - 3 little country churches - quite a comedown after having served a larger church. More failure! Then after meeting with the Board of Ordained Ministry, I was told that I might not be accepted back into conference membership. I learned later that that whole process was not done correctly. By that time I was feeling so much like a failure, and so frustrated and angry that I thought, “Screw you. I'll hunt another denomination.” But I had a District Superintendent who stood by me. And I can still remember what he said as he went to bat for me at a meeting with the District Committee on Ministry. He said I had been "eminently successful" in my previous church. His affirmation gave me a whole new perspective

Sometimes whether you are judged a success or failure depends on whom you ask. There are times when I get to feeling that I've been a failure here at this church. And if I listen to the people who have been critical of me, or have left the church because they didn't like me or didn't accept my style of leadership, I can easily believe I've been a failure. But then when I listen to people who are affirming, and encouraging, I get a different perspective. And even though I know I've had many failures here, I don't have to look on my ministry here as a failure at all.

Be careful whom you tune in to! Don't just listen to those who say you're a failure and believe everything they're saying. Try to keep a balanced perspective.

But sometimes, the reality is, we do fail. What do we do then? Admit it……..ask God
for forgiveness, God is willing to forgive us for every failure if we're only willing to own up to it and confess it………..also ask for forgiveness from any who have been affected or hurt by our failures.

We're looking at what to do when we fail. First, try to keep a proper perspective. Next,
realize that failure need not be the last word. Failure is not final. Remember John Mark, the young man who failed in his missionary work? What ever happened to him? We don't know a whole lot about him, but we do know that he seems to have redeemed himself and become a valuable partner in sharing the gospel. Apparently he won back the respect of the Apostle Paul. In Philemon, verse 24, he is mentioned as a "fellow worker" of Paul. And Paul writes to Timothy, "Get Mark, and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11). And, oh, by the way, the Gospel According to Mark, in our New Testament, almost every scholar believes it was John Mark who wrote that gospel!
Failure doesn't have to be final!

There are some good things that can happen out of failure.

1. Failure can teach us humility. It's easy when we're running off a string of successes to become cocky or prideful. But failure can bring us down to earth again and make us more humble.

2. Failure can teach us to be less judgmental, and more compassionate. Experiencing failure ourselves can make us more sympathetic towards others who are struggling or failing.

3. Failure can teach us to rely on God. It's easy when we’ve had success to begin to think that it's all our own doing. I think God sometimes allows us to fail to teach us to rely on Him, and not ourselves.

4. Failure can open up doors for greater achievement. If you're going to fail, "fail forward". Ray Krok failed in real estate, then decided to start something called, "McDonalds"! Thomas Edison had 10,000 failures before he learned how to make a light bulb that worked. He didn't call those 10,000 attempts "failures". He called it an education. "I know 10,000 things that don't work," he said.

If you are willing to commit your failures to God, God can bring good out of them!

I served a fairly large church for almost 9 years. By the 9th year, I knew it was time to move on. I didn't feel people were responding to my ministry and that the church would benefit from a pastoral change. In a broader sense, I was also beginning to think that doing things the way we've always done them in the church was no longer working. That it was a different world, and the church needed to change. But I had no idea how.

I talked with my District Superintendent and we both agreed that I would leave that church at the end of the Conference year, but it was too early yet to tell the congregation. Soon after I had decided that I would be leaving, I learned that a petition was being circulated in the church to get rid of me. That had never happened before, and hasn't happened since. It was the worst experience of my 42 years of pastoral ministry. Even now when I think of that experience, the feelings of betrayal and rejection still linger somewhat.

I look back on my years at that church and realize that God did many good things, but I can also see now that I did fail to provide the leadership that church needed. I was a good pastor in taking care of the congregation. But I hadn’t provided the visionary leadership that church needed. Theological seminary had taught me how to be a pastor. No one had taught me how to be a leader who could take a church into the 21st century.

I left that church at the end of the conference year, feeling like a failure. I thought of going into counseling fulltime, but wound up taking a church in Easton, PA, although Nancy and our kids stayed in the area where we had lived. I lived by myself through the week and only saw my family on weekends.

I had a good ministry in Easton, but I was still searching for a way to do church that was more relevant. I only stayed 3 years. Three years of living apart from my wife was enough. I asked to move, if possible, to Lancaster County. And wound up here in Lititz.

Before I started here, Larry Leister, the former pastor, asked me to go with a few of the lay people from this church to a conference on church transformation. Larry said that Lititz UMC was moving in some new directions, and he thought I should attend the conference to get on board. I did. And it was a revelation to me, God-thing. Because so many of the questions I had about how to do church differently were answered. It's like the light bulbs were coming on! I caught a new vision of how to do church in a way that relates better to the real world we live in today. And I re-tooled how I function both as a pastor and a leader within the church. Truthfully, I doubt that all of this would have happened without that crushing experience of failure in the one congregation. God was able to take the worst failure of my ministry and bring good out of it.

Don't be afraid of failure. It's not the end. We can learn a lot through failures. We can grow a lot through our failures. Failure is never final. Commit your failure to God, and God can bring good out of it.

Sermon preached by Harry L. Kaufhold, Jr.
Lititz United Methodist Church
January 13, 2008

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