Too Afraid to Fail?

I'm on the Board of Directors of the Niagara branch of Habitat for Humanity. Last week we had Col. Chris Hadfield as the keynote speaker at a gala fundraiser.

Col. Chris Hadfield

Something Col. Hadfield said really struck me. He said, "Visualizing failure is a way of life for astronauts." At every step of the way, they have to anticipate failure and how they will respond.

Most churches are risk averse. They are afraid to try new things in case they fail. Or, past failures are used to stop change. "Oh, we tried that 10 years ago, and it didn't work!"

But failure is crucial to growth and change. I have a brand new granddaughter. If she developed the same attitude to failure that characterizes many churches, she would never learn to walk or talk. Trying and failing, over and over again, is the only way we acquire the skills we need to make it through life.

So why are our churches so risk averse? What is this fear of trying new things in case they fail?

The stakes are high. Or at least they seem high in our imaginations. What if people get mad and leave? We can't afford to lose anybody. What if we spend the money and it doesn't work? We're running a deficit as it is. The possibility of failure makes us anxious, and most congregations are already pretty high anxiety places.

But I have a different theory. I think our willingness to take risks is directly proportional to our commitment to a compelling vision. Chris Hadfield believes passionately in the space program and the International Space Station. He believes it is a force for world-building and peace. And so he's willing to take big risks in the interests of that vision.

I wonder if our problem is that we have lost the sense that there is anything worth taking risks for? Earlier generations of Christians believed that there was something life and death about sharing the gospel and doing Christ's work in the world. I wonder if we haven't lost that sense. The most compelling reason a lot of congregations have for their own existence is that they like being together and their parents went to that church. That's not much of a motivation to put it all on the line.

When I was a kid I could never understand why Jesus was so hard on the poor guy who took his one talent and hid it in the ground. Wasn't he being prudent? I wondered. After all, at least he didn't lose it.

But his timidity and risk aversion pointed to his lack of passion in the mission he was given by his master. He wasn't being prudent. He was being non-committal. And he was severely judged for it.

We are in a time when only those churches that are willing to move outside their traditional comfort zones and reinvent themselves will have a long-term future. And yet congregations can't muster enough will to move their worship time by half an hour, let alone commit to new forms of ministry.

We could learn something from Chris Hadfield. Without taking risks, nothing happens. But unless you have a compelling vision, there is no motivation to risk anything.