What If You Fail In Ministry?

Being a youth pastor in a church where I am building from the ground up, I have to make room for some failures to happen in ministry. When I began ministry after college, I thought everything I did God was going to bless and give me success. Sadly, not everything I did was a huge success. I planned for everything the best way I knew how, but it just did not work out the way I thought.

Not to long ago, I planned a youth rally at our church with some acoustic style worship and a friend of mine preaching. We advertised, got letters to the churches, and told our students to invite their friends. We even got the rally advertised on one of our city's digital billboards at no charge. I thought this was going to be a big night. Only one church showed up with about 20 students in a worship center that can seat up to 200. To add insult to injury, only one of our students showed up. Thankfully my friend who preached is also a seasoned veteran in Youth Ministry and told me, "Whether we have 2 or 200, we are going worship."

I felt like a failure that night because of the hard work I put in. As I was praying, God reminded me that even though it was a failure in the eyes of men, Jesus is enough. I was one of those guys that idolized ministry to the point, if I was not a minister in a church, I was not doing God's will. Jesus is enough. Another truth came to me, in ministry I am going to fail.

Pastors, are you afraid to fail? If you are, then I would start asking the Holy Spirit to give you guidance as to who you are really serving in the church. I would do a thorough heart check to see if it is Jesus you are worshiping or your success in ministry. We are serving the Lord Christ as we serve His church. It is Jesus we are worshiping not how many people we have led to become a Christian. Yes, I rejoice when I lead someone to Christ, but remember it is Jesus who saves, not you.

When you have failed in ministry, remember Jesus is enough and it is God's approval you have whether you have the approval of people in your church or not.