"Why didn't I meet you in 1998! I could have taught most of what I learned in my Seminary classes on starting churches. But all this is different."
I have trained some of the sharpest church starting pastors I have ever met in the last few years. It is a common theme. Somehow they didn’t feel they got what they needed in school.
Out in the real world there is a fear of failure. There often is some experience they are overcoming that has led them to believe they have already failed.
My friend from the opening quote further said, "Never mention my name to Prof XYZ. I think he hates me."
I am confident that professor thinks well of him, not has he suspects. You wouldn't believe how experienced and talented he is. You also wouldn't believe how deeply he feels the failure as he now lives on secular dollars. Mind you. Of the hundreds he works around, he consistently rates as the #1 employee. But he still feels like a failure.
What am I offering him that is different? Here is one thing ...
He never understood that to succeed in starting a church you have to learn to manage the perception of rejection. When someone says, "No thanks" you have to learn to not take its as personal rejection. It is only a statement that they are not ready to respond at that point in their life.
They never taught my friend that in seminary and he is recovering from the damage of experiencing that reality. Perhaps the concept was mentioned but not emphasized. The inspiring stories of wonderful successes may have squeezed the hard messages out.
It is OK to have others think you are failing as long as you are succeeding in terms that the Judge understands and will use to evaluate our fruit on the Day.
I have trained some of the sharpest church starting pastors I have ever met in the last few years. It is a common theme. Somehow they didn’t feel they got what they needed in school.
Out in the real world there is a fear of failure. There often is some experience they are overcoming that has led them to believe they have already failed.
My friend from the opening quote further said, "Never mention my name to Prof XYZ. I think he hates me."
I am confident that professor thinks well of him, not has he suspects. You wouldn't believe how experienced and talented he is. You also wouldn't believe how deeply he feels the failure as he now lives on secular dollars. Mind you. Of the hundreds he works around, he consistently rates as the #1 employee. But he still feels like a failure.
What am I offering him that is different? Here is one thing ...
He never understood that to succeed in starting a church you have to learn to manage the perception of rejection. When someone says, "No thanks" you have to learn to not take its as personal rejection. It is only a statement that they are not ready to respond at that point in their life.
They never taught my friend that in seminary and he is recovering from the damage of experiencing that reality. Perhaps the concept was mentioned but not emphasized. The inspiring stories of wonderful successes may have squeezed the hard messages out.
It is OK to have others think you are failing as long as you are succeeding in terms that the Judge understands and will use to evaluate our fruit on the Day.
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