Failure is pervasive in life and ministry. In his book Fail: Finding Hope and Grace in the Midst of Ministry Failure, J.R. Briggs vulnerably shares his story and weaves together the stories of others who had experienced great ministry failure. The book provides a healthy framework for understanding failure, provides solid definitions of success for those in ministry, and connects with some pathways out of ministry failure. Briggs reminds us of the facts that inn our failures we experience God’s grace and power, God does not leave us alone, and God shapes our character. Great book to process if you’re going through a dry season or feel an overwhelming sense of failure in your ministry or career. You can overcome, you can fail forward, you can begin again.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

• Ministry is fertile ground for failure, and failure is fertile ground for ministry.
• Breakdowns often lead to breakthroughs – and sometimes failure can be the very thing that provides the breakthrough we need to experience true ministry.
• Failure is the crucible of character formation.
• The gospel doesn’t keep us from failing but instead transforms it into deeper meaning and a more hopeful purpose.
• Often it is not a major catastrophic event that brings pastors down but the ongoing, unrelenting, oppressive stress on the treadmill of ministry, where we simply cannot keep up the pace.
• Faithful ministry is meeting people where they are and walking with them to where God wants them to be.
• The business-model approach to ministry is product oriented, a biblical approach to ministry is process oriented.
• When we live as faithful followers of Jesus, we are bound to fail – and yet this is a good thing. Failure can be a gift. Failure can be grace. Failure can yield hope.
• Our lives and ministries will be assessed by congruence, not efficiency. It is not found in productivity, competence or progress as much as in the development of Christlike character and coherence of our stories with the character of God.
• There are few professions more open to attack by vulnerability and shame than ministry.
• For pastors one of the most accepted and encouraged yet dangerous and potentially lethal numbing agents is busyness.
• Failure will define us, refine us or redefine us, but it will never leave us the same.
• How we deal with the brokenness around us depends entirely on how we deal with the brokenness inside us.
• There is no spiritual formation and maturity without difficulty and uncertainty. If we are going to continue to grow in our journey with Jesus, we have to continue to risk, opening ourselves up to the possibility of failing again.