Where are you spending your energy? How is it working for you? I remember i wasted 10 precious years of my life and ministry debating useless isues that were dear to my church. Then i satarted seminary. I spend all my time there trying to learn the language and studying for my class asigments. Then at college and grad school i spend my time mostly writting papers. Right after i graduated it was mostly preparing sermons. I still like to do some of the above (all habits die hard!) but i can live without doing any of it. I have a passion to see people developed, healed, whole, exited, moving foward, but above all people loving Christ and being shaped by His love.

What about you? You might be spending yourself and your preciuos time and resources in important causes but not in what is truly essential. Paul put it this way in Colossians 1:28-29 “Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ. For this i toil, striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me.” Paul, as a good disciple of Christ knew that he was in the business of developing people. He was eager to suffer, go hungry, be persecuted, and even to die if it was necesary as long as people move on in the assemble line of Christlikeness. Paul knew something else; that not matter how hard he work at it he will have the energy necessary to continue in that work because the Lord himself invest in that very cause. If you are feeling tired, on the verge of burnout, tempting to call it quits, it maybe that the Lord is not investing in the cause you are fighting for.

In the last 6 months i have been visiting several churches in the New York area.As i see it, most of this churches are concerned with self preservation. They seem to asume: we are in the business of keeping the doors open. I also see that the values of some of the members do not align with the values of the leadership in charge. Members vote against the leaders by abandoning the church or by giving their money to other organizations. To turn around these churches, the leadership has to change roles. From making decisions to listening to God’s voice and helping the congregation hear God’s voice.

In this economic climate it is good to remember the words of Paul in Ephesians 5:1-2 “therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk inlove, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”. God is in the business of loving people to the point of sacrifice for them. He is not in the business of preserving buildings, traditions, or assests of any kind. The only way that the church can gain credibility again is if she takes the challenge to be an imitator of God very serious. If she assumes God’s character and start caring as He cares for us. To be an imitator of God the church has to abandon the rules of the marketplace where in times of crisis ”cash is king” and let herself experience that her King is alive and well.