Hello there, gentle reader, I hope this post finds you well. As I write this, we’re less than two weeks away from Halloween. From there, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years will arrive with a rapid ferocity. My question to you is:
Are you ready?
Now, that’s a joke, but it’s also true. Have you planned things out? Christmas is on a Sunday this year. So is New Year’s Day. What’s your plan? Service on Saturday? On Sunday with a simplified set-up? These are the questions that, honestly, we should have been asking a month ago. I hope I’m not catching you off guard.
And I’m sure I’m not. I’m sure that you’re services are well on their way to being planned.
That being so, I will ask again, with emphasis, are you ready?
Have you taken some time to get into the right head space? Pastors need to “preach to themselves” before they preach to the church. Church techs need to do something similar. Since a lot of your time is spent working, sometimes at a frenetic pace, during worship, you need to take time to worship. You need those moments of peace and focus.
And let’s be practical: have you planned some days of rest? Days without planning. Without going back over your notes and volunteer schedules? You have to do this.
Again: You have to do this.
God is not served by your exhaustion, and our enemy, the devil, can often make great use of our physical and emotional exhaustion.
Please don’t let this holiday season be a time of personal failure, spiritual drift, or plan ol’ burnout. Get yourself in the right mind – “We’re doing this to glorify God, so that others will be drawn to Him.” – and guard your spiritual life by taking time to worship and focus on Jesus (Colossians 3:1-2). Then, look ahead and build some times of physical rest and play into your schedule. Enjoy the holidays! God gave the Israelites feasts in the Old Testament so that they would have regular moments of extended rest for their bodies and extended re-focusing for their hearts and minds.
Speak your mind...