A New Years Resolution: Organization Part 1

It is Monday December 19th. I am sitting in my office and here is what it looks like.

It is on my agenda this week today to begin cleaning and organizing my files. This is something I typically do once a month. Probably something I need to do more often.

The messiness in my office though screams of something deeper that needs to take place in my life. As I get older my schedule is getting fuller and fuller. I am quickly realizing I need some organization if I am going to be able to function at a proper level in my life. It desperately has to happen.

I am one who loves organization. When I do a project I like to have an organized system to follow. If not I feel I am all over the place and not accomplishing what I need to. When I wash dishes I like to organize the dishes before cleaning them so that I can be more efficient. When I used to work for Yard Works, I would approach a new lawn with a system, and that system allowed for high efficacy over some of my co-workers in the same situation. Organization is important to me.

But then there is something else I battle. I used to think it was laziness. But I don’t know if that is entirely true. I mean, I can be lazy from time to time. I allow distractions to take place of what I need to be doing, and then it doesn’t get done until it has to. But I think there is something bigger and deeper that is the launching point to the distractions and it isn’t laziness. Whether it is the work that needs to be done to our house, or my ministry with West Side, both have a lot that needs to be done, and often I have no clue where to begin.

Let me use the house as an example. When we bought the house last year it was a foreclosure. Because of that, there was a ton that needed done. Here is the short list … Every room in the house needed small to medium holes filled on the walls, all the walls painted, trim painted, appliances installed, upstairs toilet fixed, new kitchen faucet, shelves built in the basement & garage, attic floor secured, A/V wires pulled out of wall and wall fixed, and many other projects. When you look at the list, it is hard to imagine where to begin. Obviously you start with what has to be fixed … toilet, kitchen faucet, appliance, things like that. But with the other projects where do you begin. We have worked through a lot of those issues, and even picked a few projects we didn’t really have to start. Money also decided some things we have and have not done. Now after 14 months in the house, we only have two rooms that need the walls fixed and painted.

When I look at ministry I feel the same way. However, I think that can easily be corrected with some system changes. There is a lot I want to do for ministry. The list of things that needs done is extensive … continued development of our ministry system, development of our contemporary service, youth ministry organization, children’s programing, developing our online ministries through Facebook and Twitter, updating and communicating through my blog, growth of our small group structure, development of our vision/mission and strategy, along with all the normal preaching and teaching responsibilities that exist. If this is all going to get accomplished, I need to organize.

Finally there is one more area that I want to organize in my life … my physical and spiritual health. I think the disciplines I need to develop in each overlap in many ways. I have made great strides in my spiritual life over the past year. I have also failed miserably. My physical health is nothing I can boast about. I am want to be so much better in both of those areas. So I am going to work and tackle them together. I think my life of organization will help me accomplish physical and spiritual health.

Since 2012 is only a few weeks away, I have decided to make organization my New Years Resolution. It is my goal to use Friday’s to talk about how I am doing on this journey of organization. I will use this space to share tools that I found that help me organize. I will share my accomplishments and my failures along this journey. 2012 is gearing up to a big year in my life and ministry and I am excited. It will only be a success with God’s leading and organization.

I posted this last year following Christmas. Had Jesus been born today, it may have been communicated this way. What do you think?

Sunday @ West Side

This has been a great Christmas season here at West Side. It has been really encouraging to see so many faces fill the sanctuary this month. Yesterday our numbers were a little lower, but we had many out visiting and seeing family. Our worship service was enjoyable even though the message wasn’t what I truly desired it to be. I know the point was there, I just wasn’t a fan of my delivery.

Last night was our Cantata performed by our Choir. Let me be upfront and honest with you … I am not a fan of Cantata’s. It’s not that I hate them. It’s not that I think they are old fashioned and something we must do away with. I am just not a person who enjoys listening to people sing. It’s just not my thing. I am not the person who loves to go to concerts. I’ve been to them, I think there neat, and I have seen some pretty cool things at them, but it isn’t earth shattering if I don’t get to see my favorite bands play. I can think of many different and better ways to spend money. Now I do love music, and it is a large part of my life, but to sit and listen to people sing, just not my thing.

Having said all of that, our Choir did an awesome job last night. They did a great job presenting the story of Christ birth and the salvation he offered. I am always intrigued on how well published Cantata’s do at pointing to the cross, even Christmas Cantata’s. I was especially impressed with our Soprano's at the end of the last song. They hit notes I didn’t know they had within in them. From a guy who doesn’t get excited to listen to people sing, I was thoroughly blown away.

Thank you Lord for blessing us with a wonderful day yesterday.

Sunday @ West Side

What a great Sunday we had yesterday. Yesterday kicked off our new sermon series “The Colors of Christmas,” as well as the Advent Season. Yesterday the Baker family came forward and to light the first candle, the light purple one, which for us represents the hope we have in Christ, the hope that came in His birth.

We kicked off our sermon series with a sermon that told the Christmas Story from a different perspective. In doing so I began a new Christmas tradition of repeating a sermon. It is a sermon that take us through the entire Bible to show how the Christmas story unfolds. It is a sermon that connects the dots of how the entire Bible works together to bring out the birth and death of Christ to save man.

Last night was the highlight of it all. Last night we began a new tradition at West Side with our first ever Hanging of the Greens Service. We met at the church at 5:00 to begin decorating the Church. The worship area looks wonderful thanks to all the people who came out and helped us accomplish this beautiful task. At 6:00 we met for a time of worship, communion, a short devotional, and the first ever hanging of the ornaments on the family Christmas Tree. We followed the service with a time of fellowship with cookies and Hot Chocolate. The night was a tremendous blessing.

Concerns in Christianity

I don’t want to be judgmental. I don’t even know if I can say it is right or wrong. But there is a trend I see happening that is just not sitting right with me. I think sometimes in the church we have erred on the side of caution to a fault. One area would be in the discussion of sex. For a long time in the church sex wasn’t talked about except "don’t have sex until you are married." We never highlighted the joys, benefits, and pleasures of God designed sex in a marriage. We just said to our teens and unmarried people don’t have sex, instead of saying save yourself for what God has created sex for. We haven't shared that we save ourselves to live in and cherish all of the blessing that come from sex in marriage. But that discussion isn’t my concern today.

The Bible teaches the concept that we are to “live in the world, not of the world” (1 John 2:15-17). It also teaches that we are to separate ourselves from the sinful ways of life that we left when Christ became our savior (Colossians 3:1-17). These thoughts as well as many others has in many ways formed the way our society once looked. But as society has left the church, what has become “ok” to society now looks drastically different than the church. As a Christian, called to live pure and holy lives, this difference is a good thing.

But here is where my concern lies. While the church may look different, it continues to drift further away from purity. I guess what I am saying is if society is way out on the 50 yard line then the church is on the 10 yard line. But as society continues to move further away, the church seems to be doing the same thing. If society moves into the enemies territory, say going to the opponents 40 yard line, the church is still 40 yards separated from society, but is now residing on their own 20. Does that analogy make sense? In a sense, we are still looking different from society, but we have drifted from the holiness that marks a Christian, and accepted things society accepted ten even fifteen years ago.

What brought all of this on is something I am seeing from Christian in my generation all around me. I feel in many ways we are not separating ourselves from society. I was looking for information from an author whose book I am reading. On his biography page on the website of the church where he serves, he openly stated that he enjoys a cigar from time to time. I saw recently on a friends Facebook page, his profile picture shows him smoking a pipe. I know another guy, when he was hired as the youth minister of his church, he reported back that their staff goes out to a bar once a week, drinks a few beers, just to stay grounded. Now friends, I am not saying that drinking alcohol is wrong. I am not saying smoking a pipe is wrong, but where is the line that we draw in the sand for ourselves as followers of Christ? These are simply illustrations.

I think in some ways, we don’t really want to separate ourselves from the world. I think in some ways, we want to follow Jesus, and I really mean follow, but we also want the world. We want to be committed followers, but we don’t want to look that different. Friends, this concerns me. Being a follower of Christ is a call to purity, is a call to separation, is a call to pursuing holiness. Instead of being on the 10 yard line, maybe we need to consider being on the goal line or even in the end zone. The age old saying continues to ring true … “it’s not how close to the fire can I get without getting burnt, it is how close to God I can get to truly worship him with my life through purity and holiness.”

Lesson’s From a Church Builder

I am excited, lost, and stuck all at the same time. Over the last few weeks we have had some really good things happen here at West Side. At the same time I feel like I have been dealt some pretty heavy blows. I am feeling excited, worn out, optimistic, and depressed all at the same time. I think there might be a lesson God is trying to teach me about the whole church building thing.

I like to read blogs. I read several every day. Through the course of reading them a few that I have really grown to like are the ones concerned with church planting and leading a church. I have read that church planting and church rebuilding is incredibly hard and draining work while at the same it is entirely rewarding. I cognitively understood the concept, but it never really sank in. Until now. It reminds me of going to Bible college.

When I went Bible college I heard from students, professors, and even our dorm parents that I was going to have to work really hard to stay in the Bible reading it for joy and to spend time with God daily. Initially I thought that wasn’t going to be a problem. “Man, I am at Bible college. I am going to become a spiritual giant over the next couple of years,” were the thoughts that ran through my mind. But as I started into my freshman year, it wasn’t long until those prophets words rang true. But their messages weren’t so much prophetic as they were words of wisdom honed from experience. The Bible became a text book and prayer became something we did in class and chapel on a daily basis. And I found myself caught in the middle of learning how to make the Bible not a text book and my prayers with God real and genuine, like I was speaking from the heart.

And so, I find myself in a very similar situation. I read about men who are going through the church planting or building stage and see that they are having mountain top experiences while being drug through the sludge of the sewer. I see their prophetic words of wisdom starting to ring true in my life. Why do I have to be so stubborn to learn this lesson all on my own? I don’t know! But maybe it is the only way I am going to learn, see, and experience all that God has planned for my life and ministry here in Lebanon serving with West Side.

Above image was used from the blog Find Me ... The Real Me . No copyright infringement is intended.