Temptation four: avoiding suffering and failure — "Dan, let me ask you directly"
- Are you tempted to avoid suffering and failure?
Ben reads the article's fourth temptation — avoiding suffering and failure — and asks Dan directly whether he's tempted by it. Dan and Mike both say no. The hosts work the article's imagined cases: Peter unbroken by failure, Paul without his thorn, Moses without Midian. Dan recounts a biker funeral with a thousand non-Jesus people as real suffering-facing ministry, and Paul rolling into hostile rooms is held up as the model.
More on Ministry
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'What would I fight God on?': buildings, pews, and the zero-fruit youth group
- What would I fight God on — and would my heart go along with following him?
Ben shares what he ran into in the last couple weeks: 'what would I fight God on even if I knew it was him?'
From No. 603 · Found Out
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Should churches count? Data, demographics, and ministry
- Should churches survey, count, and steer ministry by data?
The survey sparks a long reflection on whether churches should spend resources surveying, counting, and marketing.
From No. 464 · Buying International Locusts
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Style over substance, appearance over authenticity, functionality over beauty
- For each critique on the list: in what ways would this be true, and what would have to be true for the critique to be valid?
The hosts work through three list items. Style over substance is agreed as a flat-out mistake, with caution that authenticity does not mean being crappy.
From No. 460 · 14 to 25 Mistakes From Wildin’
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Jim Palmer's 25 mistakes: putting church over community
- Is putting church over community a real mistake or a false dichotomy?
A host reads Jim Palmer's list of '25 mistakes I made' as a pastor of a large North American church, and the hosts decide to walk through the list one critique at a time.
From No. 458 · 12 to 13 Mistakes From Wildin