Letter from Pastor Hennie, Jan 2016
Most businesses that fail don’t fail because they try to do too little, but because they try to do too much. It seems that one of the surest ways of failing in the business world is to spread yourself too thin, to try and do everything at once, to attempt to make use of every (seemingly) good opportunity.
In this case, what is true in the business world is true also in the spiritual world. As Charles Spurgeon once wrote: ‘The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything.’ Therefore, let us resolve this year to ‘become effective by being selective.’ Let us not be as harmless as scattered light, but let us be as potent as focussed lasers that can cut through steel. Let us not ‘run aimlessly’ in all directions or ‘box as one beating the air’ (1 Corinthians 9.26), but let us be focussed and deliberate in our approach.
Even focus, however, means very little if we are focussed on the wrong things, so the question naturally arises, ‘What should our lives be focussed on?’ One way to answer that question is in terms to relationship: ‘We should focus on right relationship.’ The first step to right relationship is a counter-cultural step: To reject the radical individualism of our culture and embrace a corporate identity as the basis of our thinking; in other words, if I ask the question, ‘What should I focus on?’ rather than, ‘What should we focus on?’ my focus is already wrong. In this sense, too, we should reflect our God who said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image…’ (Genesis 1.26) and ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ (Isaiah 6.8) and Who taught us to pray, ‘Our Father…’ (Matthew 6.9), even when we are alone, behind closed doors (Matthew 6.6).
Once we have replaced our ‘me thinking’ with ‘us thinking’, the second step is for us to focus on right relationship upwards, outwards, and inwards:
- 1) Upwards, with God.
- 2) Outwards, with non-believers.
- 3) Inwards, with one another.
As Steve Murrell writes in his book, WikiChurch: ‘Discipleship is about building three key relationships: first with God (follow), then with nonbelievers (fish), and finally with God’s people (fellowship).’ As God’s counter-cultural, covenant community called the church, we need to focus on right relationship upwards, outwards, and inwards in order to be effective and make the maximum impact.
As you may have noticed, the theme this year for Shofar globally is “God’s building,” but how does God build through us? The answer: Through right relationship. Let us, therefore, at the beginning of this new year resolve, together, to focus on right relationship: upwards, outwards, and inwards. Let this be reflected in our work and our play, in what we choose to do and how we choose to do it.
Yours in Christ
Hennie
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