As you know, if you read this blog regularly, I am a big fan of space exploration. I wrote a series centered around the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing beginning here. So today was to be another milestone of sorts: a test of the SpaceX rocket Starship. Except it didn’t go quite according to plan: it exploded shortly after launch. Or, as SpaceX described it:

Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unplanned disassembly.

What you and I would call an explosion, SpaceX calls “a rapid unplanned disassembly.” As CNN reported, this is not the first time they used that term, and they have a very unusual culture:

SpaceX is known to embrace fiery mishaps during the rocket development process. The company maintains that such accidents are the quickest and most efficient way of gathering data, an approach that sets the company apart from its close partner NASA, which prefers slow, methodical testing over dramatic flareups. – CNN, April 20, 2023

A fascinating philosophy. Embracing fiery mishaps. A very gutsy leadership style. Most churches (and NASA) are risk-averse. But if you try something and it fails spectacularly, you learn something if you’re paying attention, and you don’t quit. SpaceX won’t quit:

Although it ended in an explosion, Thursday’s test met several of the company’s objectives for the vehicle. Clearing the launchpad was a major milestone for Starship. In the lead-up to liftoff, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sought to temper expectations, saying, “Success is not what should be expected. … That would be insane”

With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary,” SpaceX tweeted after the explosion. – CNN, April 20, 2023

SpaceX won’t quit, but some churches do. Years ago, I was on staff at a large church and helped engineer something that would have been a paradigm change. The church excelled in what they called “ministry teams,” groups of volunteers doing various functions: e.g., the third Sunday 9:30a ushers, the second Wednesday kitchen crew. I suggested and the senior staff agreed that these ministry teams could also be discipling teams if the team leader (or someone else on the team) understood that they had two functions: one, do the job they were supposed to do; two, disciple the team members. We kicked off the new emphasis with a large Sunday night gathering of leaders. Despite initial enthusiasm from a number of folks, within a week, the idea was killed. Why? “Well, some of the members were confused.”

In the spirit of SpaceX, so what? What if some members were confused? Let’s unconfuse them. We may not have done a good job explaining things. Let’s try again. But this was not a church that “embraced fiery mishaps.” It was a church that didn’t like its members confused, even for a short time. So the initiative died, and when I think about it, I’m still bummed.

Embrace fiery mishaps. It’s not a bad philosophy.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. (Isaiah 43.2, ESV)