(Posted Feb 18, 2008) Keeping the "main thing" the main thing is the subject of this week's episode (#11) of The Six. Pastor Dion talks about that and also ponders the power of prayer AND bowling...oh yeah!
And don't forget, next week's question,
"How much responsibility do you feel (personally) for making sure that our mission is adequately resourced?"
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Feedback Thread
I mentioned putting a discussion thread here asking for input on whether or not you find "The Six" helpful. Go and tell me what you think by clicking HERE
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Tues Night Prayer Group
I LOVE commenting on my own stuff :)
Seriously, here was the other thing that I mentioned on "the Six" this week... the Tuesday Night prayer group (every OTHER tuesday)
http://community.st-...
This might be just the thing you've been looking for to help work on that prayer discipline this lent.
Responsibility
For me, I take it very personally.
Disclaimer: I realize that we're not talking just about money, but I'm going to focus my thoughts on that just for consistency.
When my wife and I were first asked to participate in church choir, we decided against it. We knew that with everything else in our lives, making the weekly rehearsals wasn't always possible. We decided that our non-participation was more helpful and supportive than our partial participation because even two less people sound better if they're well-rehearsed than two more people who don't really know how to sing with the rest of the group.
When we decide to commit to something, we don't do it unless we really believe that we can handle the full commitment required in doing so. That doesn't mean that we don't help out on a case-by-case basis, but those are individual commitments that we make and we don't make them unless we believe we can follow through with them.
That being said, when I do commit, I try like crazy to be in it until the end. God called me to that commitment, so I owe it to Him to try and honor that. In the same way, if God calls me to be a part of a church and its mission...then I owe it to Him to give everything I can to see that mission fulfilled. Sometimes I can help more...other times I can't. But that doesn't change the sense of responsibility I feel for it.
Jesus did everything he could for so many, knowing full well that some would ultimately reject him and therefore, there was nothing more that he could do for them. But that didn't stop him from weeping over them.
That's how I feel when our church struggles. When our previous church ran into financial crisis, we were (and even remain so) in a bit of a financial crisis ourselves. But knowing that there was no more that we could do didn't calm the guilt and disappointment I felt for not doing more.