If you’ve been in church planting for any length of time, even if you are pre-launch, you’ve probably experienced some spectacular victories but also some stinging defeats. Have you ever found yourself metaphorically  flat on your church planting face wondering what in the world you tripped over and how in the world you missed it?  Well, you are not alone.  It happens to the best of church planters and it happened to another great conqueror centuries ago. 

Joshua found himself flattened after the humiliating defeat at Ai.  It was a small town and the leaders of Joshua’s intelligence department had decided they didn’t need to spend too much effort taking them off the map. Other cities had appeared much more daunting.  This one should have been a quick conquest.  Instead they were “soundly defeated”, according to Joshua 7:4.  The leaders of Israel were dismayed (vs6) and cried out to God, “Why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you are going to let the Amorites kill us?”  Have you ever been there before?  “God, why did you move our family across the country to this God-forsaken city if you are just going to let us die at the hands of our own launch team (or whatever your latest struggle has been)?”  The Israelites never saw this one coming and were ready to pack it up.

Instead of losing ground, God helped them find the source of their defeat and ready themselves for the next battle.  He told them, “Hidden among you, O Israel, are things set apart for the Lord.  You will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things.” (Josh 7:13)  Before their previous battle at Jericho God had given them explicit instructions on what things should be completely destroyed (things from the pagan nations Duet 20:17) and what things should be taken as plunder for the treasury of the Lord (anything silver, gold, bronze or iron Josh 6:18). Achan had ignored God’s instructions and taken a Babylonian robe (definitely from a pagan nation) as well as some silver and gold.  The robe should have been destroyed altogether and the silver and gold was meant to be redeemed for God’s Kingdom.

We too must be careful to eradicate anything connected to the enemy and present or surrender to God anything that can be redeemed for His glory and use if we expect to win battles in His name.  Things connected to the enemy could be any old ungodly habits like stretching the truth just a hair to make us look better, or saying just a little more than we should have about that person “in the name of a prayer request”.   Other things connected to the enemy could be any beliefs that are not based on God’s word– beliefs about your city, your sister churches, your launch team, beliefs about yourself- your weaknesses or your strengths, beliefs about sin, authority, etc. etc.  These things have to go if they do not line up exactly with the Word of God.  They have to be wiped out of our lives, thoughts and actions.  They are connected to the enemy and keep us from being holy.

Other things from our conquests are meant to be presented to God for His Kingdom and glory.  If we take them for ourselves we jeopardize our next step.  Things meant to be surrendered to Him include the glory of our “success”, the skills and talents we possess that have only been heightened and strengthened through church planting,  the people we have discipled (who might need to be sent on to another new church, city or country).  These things, though good and pure like gold, in the wrong hands (ours) become a millstone around our neck and will only sink us.  We must give back to God anything that can be redeemed for His purposes.

The best part of this story is that “The Defeat AT Ai” becomes “The Defeat OF Ai”.  Once Israel rectified their wrong, God sent them right back to the place they had been defeated in order to conquer the land as His own.  “Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Point your spear toward Ai, for I will give you the city.’” (Josh 8:18)  Ai was wiped out that day. It was completely destroyed.

What is a place of former failure for you?  Allow God to show you what went wrong.  Where did you trip up?  What needs to be surrendered to Him?  What needs to be destroyed?  After you ponder these questions and act on the answers, then get back in there and take the land for your King!

The Tripped Up by Women in Church Planting, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.