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"I thought God had called me to plant this church. Why did we have to shut our doors after only three years?"

"I was at my breaking point. Then I got the news that our nine-year-old daughter had leukemia. I would have quit ministry forever, but I had no other employable skills."

"False accusations were made against me and my family, wrecking our reputation permanently and forcing us to leave not only the church, but move out of the area."

"I've served my church for the past 27 years and I've grown that church from 150 to 24 people."

What do we do when we've failed? Some ministries are shipwrecked by moral failures likeaffairs or embezzlement. But for most of us, the sense of failure is more ordinary: disillusionment, inadequacy, declining budgets, poor decisions, opposition, depression, burnout. Many pastors are deeply broken and wounded, and we come to doubt that God has any use for us.

J.R. Briggs, founder of the Epic Fail Pastors Conference, knows what failure feels like. He has listened to pastors who were busted in a prostitution sting or found themselves homeless when ejected from ministry. Withcandid vulnerability, Briggs explores the landscape of failure, how it devastates us and how it transforms us. Without offering pat answers or quick fixes, he challenges our cultural expectations of success and gives us permission to grieve our losses. Somehow, in the midst of our pain, we are better positioned to receive the grace of healing and restoration.



Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) was a pastor, scholar, author, and poet. He wrote more than thirty books, including his widely acclaimed paraphrase of the Bible, The Message; his memoir, The Pastor; and numerous works of biblicalspiritual formation, including Run with the Horses and Traveling Light.







J.R. Briggs (DMin, Missio Seminary) is the founder of Kairos Partnerships, an organization committed to serving hungry leaders through coaching, consulting, and speaking. He serves on staff with the Ecclesia Network and Fresh Expressions, and as guest instructor for Friends University in the Masters of Spiritual Formation and Leadership program. His books include The Sacred Overlap, Fail, and Eldership and the Mission of God. He and his wife and two children live inthe greater Philadelphia area.



Foreward by Eugene Peterson

Introduction: The F-Word



Part 1: Unlearning Success

1. Failure: The Trigger of Our Biggest Fears

2. Success: The Golden Calf of the American Church

3. Faithfulness: Redefining the Metric of Ministry



Part 2: Learning Failure

4. Shame: The Swampland of the Soul

5. Loneliness: The Temptation to Wear Our Masks

6. Wounds: Shattered Dreams, Grief and Mourning



Part 3: Embracing Failure

7. Wilderness: Stumbling with Jesus in the Wasteland

8. Recovery: The Excruciating Process of Letting Go

with Steve Burrell

9. Reentry: Learning to Reenter the Atmosphere

with Steve Burrell



Part 4: The Way Forward

10. Acceptance: A Kiss from God on Our Bruises

11. Rhythms: Restorative Practices for the Way Forward

Epilogue: A Different F-Word: The Beautiful Mess of Freedom



Acknowledgments

Reflection Questions

Appendix 1: Recommended Resources

Appendix 2: Guiding Questions for Pastors and Leaders

Notes

Bibliography