When I was growing up, my parents wanted me to be an engineer or an accountant. I wanted to be a teacher. They even had me meet with the superintendent of our school district for him to discourage me, however his line that I remember is, “Yes, there are more teachers today (this was the early 1970’s) than jobs for them, but there will always be jobs for good teachers.” I went to college to become a teacher. Somewhere there is failure in that story. When I graduated from college, the church could not find a teaching position for me … so I worked in a church that had no school. Failure.
After serving as a Director of Christian Education for five years, I enrolled at the seminary – something people had been telling me to do since I was in fifth grade … you might call this a failure to listen … perhaps to God as he spoke through a multitude of people. In 1995 – at the age of 41 – I became senior pastor at Saint Thomas Lutheran, Eastpointe. STL had a thriving K-8 school and a preschool. Over the course of serving there for almost 30 years, we first reduced the size of the school, then closed it. The preschool was replaced with a federally funded GSRP program … failure after failure. During that same time span both the high school our sons graduated from and my high school alma mater closed. And, more recently, the junior college I attended became everything but closed.
In the fall of 2022, about six months prior to my retirement, I was appointed Circuit Visitor … the volunteer coordinator for 7-12 congregations. The goal is to keep pastors, congregations, and ministries healthy and viable. Since then the first church in which I served as DCE has closed, along with two others in my circuit. Additionally, two of the seven congregations in my circuit currently have pastoral vacancies. Failure after failure (after failure)?
And if that is not enough, over the course of over 40 years of pastoral ministry I have officiated at the funerals of at least a half dozen individuals I knew who committed suicide … along with officiating at nearly as many funerals for young children. I have kept track of neither how many weddings I have conducted nor the number of couples that are still together, but I am certain that the number is nowhere near 100% success. In other words, more stories of failure after failure.
Of those whom I have confirmed over the years, I know that not all are still connected to the church and some have walked away from the faith altogether. People have left congregations because of my presence. There have been questions I could not answer, fears I could not quell, and hopes I could not revive. Could it be that my parents were right … I should have been an accountant!?
As I reflect upon this I realize that God knew my future story as he, through Rev. Horst Kasten, gave me my confirmation verse, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Rev. 2.10b) God, through the work of his Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, has kept me faithful thus far … and I guess that is all that really matters. And then I chuckle at the irony of the first part of that verse (which was never quoted at confirmation), “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful …” (Revelations 2.10a)
The bottom line of my life … and yours … is never failure after failure (even though it may seem that way). God is always at work … in the margins … behind the scenes … just as he was as his only begotten son was beaten, crucified, and buried. Even as he was raised on the third day, so the promise is clear: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6.4) Success after all our failures is the Easter promise … because victory and success are from the Lord of all creation.
Speaking of resurrections … the Tigers rolled the stone away on Wednesday – will we find the tomb empty on Friday?
Failure after Failure
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