The Naked Pastor on Patheos

Here is the cyclical pattern that a church and its members can absolutely thrive on:

1. guilt: realizing that you failed to live up to an expectation
2. shame: this failure means you are a bad person
3. inspiration: you get inspired (by yourself, a preacher, books, etc.) to try again
4. failure: you fail to measure up to what you were inspired to do
5. recycle: start all over again with #1