Dealing with schools work failure

In this series of schoolwork articles, I’ve spoken about principles for success and different types of engagement. So far, I’ve covered assemblies, conferences, chaplaincy and mentoring. There are more I plan to write about, but this month I want to take a pitstop to discuss how to respond when things go wrong.

Let me kick off with the most obvious example. If you make a mistake or are perceived to have made a mistake, you can only explain and apologise. Hopefully, a good relationship and an excellent track record will help. I’m so aware that most missional school work is voluntary, and if something goes wrong, schools have little obligation to keep us around. 

Take, for example, a weekend camp I ran many years ago with many young people who were more connected to me in school than the church. On this particular camp, I had my wife along as a leader with the rest of my team, and we had our three-year-old in tow. During the weekend, I played the part of camp leader, youth leader, team leader and Dad. This kind of situation can cause tension, and as I’ve got older, I tend to keep a little more separation between those roles, but in those days, I just threw everyone in the same pot and gave it a stir.