When did it become unacceptable for leaders to fail? I don't mean in the category of moral failure, but rather being responsible for a leadership decision that frankly didn't work or, in hindsight, was a bad call.
The much-documented crisis in so few people choosing to train for ministry positions is complex, but my conversation with many who considered the path into Christian leadership but chose not to pursue it often was explained as a fear of being overwhelmed by criticism. It seems to me that the fear of failure in our culture has grown exponentially – and to the detriment of Christian leadership – precisely because it has become such a taboo.
I’m all for being a gospel-pirate and pillaging ruthlessly the common grace wisdom of the secular world to scavenge the best bits for the benefit of the church, but it has to be robustly filtered through gospel values.
