Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently gave a message at the SBTS Chapel called, “You Are Not Your Gift: Finding the Freedom to Fail in Ministry. ”  You can listen to it here.

Here’s a few notable quotes:

“The failure that comes upon all of us in ministry frees you for the purpose of your gift.”

“Some of you are mediocre preachers and hate it…you would rather not preach so that you can pretend to be mighty than to preach and show yourself to be not.  Maybe God is calling you out over a life of discipline as you move beyond your mediocrity specifically for the task of being able to recognize those mediocre young preachers in the next generation that God is going to turn into the great and powerful proclaimers of God.  And he will use you to be able to see and recognize what that is and how to get there.”

 “David knows there is a Gospel that will let you fall, will let you be disappointed, will let you be frustrated, will let you be chained, or beaten, or laughed at – but the Word of God is not chained.  That would be hard to understand for Zeus worshipers.”

“There’s some of you who somehow believe that you’ve got to fight against God to make sure that nothing stands in the way of your ultimate assention at Bellevue, Village Church, Mars Hill (or wherever it is) and you’re scared to death of falling and slipping and failing.  There’s some of you God’s calling to plant churches and you are terrified of planting a church that winds up with 10 or 15 people and you have to go to the conference next year and explain why that’s so…You’re scared to death of a failure; you’re scared to death of collapse, but YOU ARE NOT YOUR GIFT.”