Two weeks ago, the members of Estrella Falls Baptist Church (our Goodyear congregation) decided to stop meeting.  Most of these members have started attending FSBCA.  It was a tough decision and a hard decision.  It was not a decision that any of us enjoyed making or that we made lightly.

But we did not fail.  In our discussion, I was extremely proud of a key member of our congregation who stood and said, “I don’t want anyone to think of this as a failure.  I recommitted my life at EFBC.  My wife was saved at EFBC.  We were baptized together (and in a hot tub!) at EFBC.  Many others had their lives changed at EFBC.  No matter what happens to our Sunday morning meeting, this church will always be part of our lives.”

We had high hopes that the EFBC congregation would be a self-supporting congregation by now.  And for a while, it looked like that is where we were headed.  But, in the end, for a lot of reasons, the congregation stopped moving forward.  Key members moved away.  The community stopped growing.  Money was tight.  Maintaining and leading two congregations was challenging for  me personally.  We stopped reaching new people. 

But I would rather attempt to move forward in God’s kingdom, knowing that not everything I try is going to work, then sit back on my heels and do nothing.  At FSBCA, we still want to reach people.  We still have a heart for the people of Goodyear.  We still believe in planting churches.  We will still begin new ministries, even if we know that success is not guaranteed.  Many times in my ministry I helped start a ministry I really believed in.  Some of these ministries grew tremendously and are still growing.  Others never really took off.  I am positive that I will experience both extremes in the future.

We didn’t reach all of our goals at EFBC, but when people come to faith in Jesus and lives are changed, then we did not fail!  And even if we were to call it failure, it is better to have tried and failed than to not try at all.  As Teddy Roosevelt said, “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.”

We dared greatly.  We will do so again.