I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but there’s only one time of year in which I am distracted from what I’ve done for the last 10 years.  That time of year?

Christmas.

Tradition – a state of being which I am not really a big fan – creeps in, and walaa, I am immersed in the sights and sounds and food and viewing pleasures of the season, many of which slam right in the face of the vision God has given to me to lead a church.

Santa inadvertanly takes the place of Jesus.

All of the trips to the store take the place of reading my Bible.

Parties take the place of visioncasting.

Meaningless gifts take the place of sacrifice.

Thinking about what I have to do takes the place of what I should be doing.

So I need some mind re-evaluation.  Maybe you do to?  There’s certainly nothing wrong with Christmas, but is it overkill?  Do I end up spending way too much time thinking about the good times of the past and not enough time thinking about where I am and where God wants me to go?

So this week, I want to…

Fix my eyes on Jesus.

Stop.  And spend time with Him.

Be intentional about encouraging and leading the people I’m with toward the One we worship during this time.

Look to sacrifice rather than shop.

Do what I should be doing.

What should you be doing?

Yesterday I talked about time and how saying “no” is not the enemy of “yes”, but it can be the very close companion.  I also mentioned that I would be sharing a new policy I’ve given to the fine folks on our lead team at Fellowship Church.

I should start off by saying that we’re not a very big church, so this policy change is not easy because we have tons of people “licking their chops” to volunteer at Fellowship.  In fact, it’s not a very easy change to make at all, but I’ve decided to follow through with it because I believe God gives people certain gifts to help His church thrive, and because so many time we don’t use our gifts to their fullest potential because we’re too busy trying to say “yes” to everyone and be good at everything.

The change that we’ll be making is that everyone in our church will be in one Sunday morning ministry and one Sunday morning ministry only.  So if Sally is doing Family ministry (for kids) on one Sunday and greeting our guests another Sunday, our leaders will have to work together to decide, based on her desires and her talents and growth which ministry she will be volunteering in during 2009.

My hope is that this will do three things:

The change will help us coordinate and communicate more effectively between ministries within Sunday Mornings @ Fellowship.
The change will give our volunteers motivation to excel at the ministry God has placed them in for this season in their life.
The change will help streamline volunteerism in our church and allow individuals to make wise decisions concerning their time.

I don’t think this change will be easy for us.  Effective change never is.  But the alternative is several people with the gifts of mercy, helps, or who just like to say “yes” too much will hinder the spiritual growth of other partners at Fellowship by taking over the need for those individuals to say “yes” to a ministry in which they are gifted to participate.  And at the same time, because of an immediate need, I will let that hindrance occur.

So we need our Fellowshippers, new and old, to either:
Pray about getting out of the way of one of the gazillion ministries in which they might be involved.  or
Pray about jumping into their first ministry volunteer position.

So your thoughts on this change being effective, por favor?

Sometimes you have to say “no”, so eventually you can say “yes”.

I’m learning that saying “no” to McDonalds and eating out all the time allows me to occasionally say “yes” and doesn’t make me feel like crap.

The same is true with our time.  There will always be people attempting to hoard our time, especially if we are a “yes” person or if we are well-liked.  But my purpose in life is not to be well-liked or to say “yes” to everything, even if there’s a need.  The point is that you and I need to be disciplined with our time and focused on what we’re supposed to be doing, so that later on, we will have time to continue to do the things we are supposed to be doing, and ultimately to help those in need.

The consequences of saying “yes, yes, yes” to everyone are deep.  They include, but are not limited to:

*loss of ones family
*the progress of chaos in your life
*depression because there’s no possible way you can do everything

There are emergencies that come into my life that I need to say “yes” to, but there are also emergencies that come my way that I need to say “no” to, and it requires maturity and discernment to make the wise choices in those situations, including to look a “type A” personality in the eye and say:

“No, I can’t do that right now.  Now let me think about it.”

Tomorrow I will share a new policy I have instituted at Fellowship Church starting in January for this reason.

I’ve been on my computer all day for the first time in a few weeks working on some things for my church.

How many hours a day would you say you’re on your computer?