Short list of things I was not taught in college

First off, I am an advocate of education. I've spent tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours on it. It is valuable for a lot of things. However, while I spent time pursuing worthy endeavors, I also spent an inordinate amount of time also studying crap that had very little value to my actual career. Rather than point out those things, I think I'll write the things that I wish they would have taught me.

1) Success in ministry is not solely determined by one's godliness. I was taught that if I really trusted Jesus, then God would bless my ministry and I would have a big church.
2) Success in ministry is not solely measured by the size of one's congregation. While size does matter, it's not the only thing. Perhaps some people have greater capacities for ministry, relationships and leadership than others. If that is the case, then maybe success means exceeding our capacities through trusting God, but shouldn't necessarily be compared to others, as if ministry were some sort of one up or tinkling contest.
3) Gathering a crowd really isn't all that hard. Just do something crazy, but legal and within the boundaries set forth by the New Testament, and people will show up just to see the show. For now, I'll not comment on whether or not that (bait and switch events) is a good thing. Examples: 400 kids show up for a free all you can eat pizza thing, 550 kids show up for a $5, 8 hour lock in that has video games, TV smash, inflatables, all you can eat food including pizza, and mechanical bull. My friend, Sean Chandler, recently put on one of these events "Christmas Chaos"@ HCBC in Hutto, TX.
4) Following Jesus is hard but church should be easy. It seems that we may have it completely backwards with our total buy in of Willow, Saddleback, NorthPointe, seeker driven models. Alan Hirsch has written on this quite a bit. See him for more.

to be continued...