All the plans were in place. Promotional material was sent to hundreds of people and churches. The speaker was booked, and his flights were paid for.
But on the day of the event, only two people showed up. We had planned a significant training event for evangelism, and nobody came. I remember this event like yesterday—it was devastating and embarrassing.
But then something strange happened. The speaker said to me, “Kirk, this is great! We will have two more people equipped to share their faith with others than we did yesterday. Who knows what impact these two men will have in the world?”
Disappointment in ministry is real.
How you deal with disappointment will shape your soul and your future.
When you pour your heart and soul into ministry, things often do not work out according to your dreams. As you realize the gap between what you imagined and what is happening, your heart will experience the sting of disappointment.
In the valley of disappointment, you will have an emotional battle to face and questions that circle around in your mind. Where did I go wrong? Why don’t men want to follow me? Don’t men care about their spiritual well-being? Did God lead me down the path to fail, or did I not hear God correctly?
In these seasons, two truths can help you have peace in your soul and motivate you to keep going when you want to give up.
1. Disappointment is connected to your definition of success.
Whether you know it or not, you have a definition of success in everything you set out to accomplish. In ministry, you imagine how many men will show up for an event, and the dramatic life change God will accomplish. When this definition of success is not achieved, you will feel disappointed.
The Bible repeatedly has a different definition of success: faithfulness (e.g. Luke 16:10; 1 Peter 4:10; Revelation 2:10; etc.).
Doing what God has told you to do is what matters. Sometimes, He will give you the privilege of seeing dramatic things change. Most of the time, you are the one planting seeds and watering the seeds someone else has planted (John 4:37-38; 1 Corinthians 3:6).
I remember speaking to a church planter who was about to close their church doors because it had “failed.” The lessons I learned from the evangelism training event led me to ask the church planter these questions: “If God called you to plant a church, then would God say this is a failure? What if God put you there to plant seeds of the Gospel for someone else to experience the harvest?” At that moment, God revealed something to this church planter, and I watched their face go from depressed to relieved and free.
Focusing on what God has told you to do will give you peace in your soul and allow you to gladly serve whoever shows up – even if it’s only two people.
2. Don’t give up—your best days are still ahead of you.
One of the temptations of disappointment is to give up. We hear or perceive messages like, “It’s not worth it!” “People don’t care, so why should I?”
Please—for the sake of your own heart, the people you love, and the people you have the potential to influence in the future—don’t believe the lie!
Galatians 6:9 encourages us with these words: “Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.” Of course, this does not mean you should never start a new job or serve in a different ministry, but we want those decisions to come from a place of faith, not frustration.
God is encouraging you to stay the course in being faithful to being the man and leader God has called you to be. Don’t give up! Keep going! God is not done working through your life to influence and impact the lives of others.
The hope and reality of eternal life tell us that no matter how difficult (or good) your life is now— your best days are still ahead of you.
Disappointment is real because you are seeing the circumstances of the moment. Don’t allow disappointment to define you or your ministry. Reflect on the truth that you are part of a bigger, more spectacular, eternal story that God is unfolding, and you get to be part of it.
About
