I am someone who prefers things to be perfect. Can I get an amen? The problem is I work in the church and working in the church isn’t a brilliant place to serve if you leant towards perfection. In church ministry we are constantly starting new things, adapting old things, giving people a chance to lead and watching them grow. Anytime we work with people we see some amazing successes, we see some surprises (both bad and good) and we see our fair share of failures too.

I’ve had to learn not to get hung up on professionalism!

After years and years of ministry (I’ve clocked up 18 now) I think the failures feel harder. Perhaps it’s because we’ve taken a few knocks before, perhaps we think failures should be happening less when we are older, but whatever the reason it feels harder I think the fear of getting it wrong again can stop us from risking at all. Instead we unconsciously become safe and slow to release people towards risk in ministry. This leaves us with one big challenge…..

We stop releasing the successes too.

As I was reading the book of Matthew today I came across a parable I’ve read before but it impacted me deeply as I was thinking about all of this.

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” Matthew 13:24-30

I love the wisdom here and it is one we can learn when we are giving leaders a chance. The truth of the matter is we can never be sure how someone will grow and adapt when they lead. I’m not saying we should be reckless but even with the greatest discernment, a large amount of prayer and the best references, we can still get it wrong and a leader can cause difficulty. Welcome to the weeds.

But that can’t mean we stop giving people a go. We can’t stop what God wants to release through leaders because we are scared about what they could get wrong. When I think about my own journey I’m so glad someone decided to risk it with me, because the truth is I didn’t deserve it based on performance. I’m sure there were plenty of occasions where people might have wanted to rip me out but I am thankful they didn’t – I think their risk payed off…..maybe.

We must trust the Lord when it comes to this, and we can’t shrink back just because we feel the force of some of our failures. Things will be good (seed) and bad (weeds), people will get it right and wrong, but let’s ensure we at least give them the opportunity to discover and work out which option it’s going to be!