Have you experienced some failures in your leadership? (202-4)

Leaders do not have to be superstars or great heroes to make a significant impact. Read Mark 14:51-52; Acts 13:13; Acts 15:38; Colossians 4:10; and 1 Peter 5:13.

We know little about the author of the book of Mark or as he was also known, John Mark. Our first introduction (at least according to many Bible experts) shows him as part of the group at the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was taken captive the night before His crucifixion. Not a real flattering moment for Mark. The next time we meet him he is accompanying Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. Again, not all that flattering for Mark because for some unexplained reason Mark leaves his friends and returns to Jerusalem. This act created such tension that Paul refused to allow Mark to accompany him on his second missionary journey explaining “…he had deserted them.” Mark’s beginnings didn’t show much promise that he would be a major contributor to the faith.

Many leaders have had “Mark-like” beginnings. Their career as a leader starts with some humiliating failures or crushing defeats. Some slip away in humiliation and defeat but others, like Mark, get up, learn from what has happened, stay faithful to the purpose for which God created them and become outstanding leaders. While Mark’s early record had shown him as a man committed to his own comfort and safety, later references to Mark show him as a valuable team player. Even the Apostle Paul who once had very harsh words for Mark later commends Mark to the churches and, at a time he thought he would be executed for the faith, and his team was deserting him, he asked for Timothy to bring Mark with him to Rome because he was a man he could trust in the trenches with him.

Have you experienced some failures in your leadership? Do your friends know that you had some public failures in your work, or church or even in your family? Are you thinking of giving up or settling for obscurity because you just can’t seem to get it right? If so, remember Mark, be persistent, and keep learning from your mistakes. He did not start out as a major contributor to the faith. He certainly failed his early leadership tests yet God used Mark as an author of one of only 66 books in the Bible. Many of the world’s greatest leaders have been forged on the anvil of failure.