Day 282 - A Small Church With A Lot of People

"Small church hospitality with the large church opportunity. We need the best of both worlds. It is possible."

These thoughts are really notes from what I was crafting regarding our church staff and volunteers attitude towards our members and guests. We have a church in a rough area. At times it is difficult to have a gentle approach when confronted with some of the issues that come on our campus. Regardless, we need to still have the right approach to our people. There are times we have to say no but it must be done in the right spirit. 

What we concluded after wrestling with these issues is that this year of 2015 we were going to love people more and do church better. That included accommodating our members and guests. We needed to streamline processes and make it easy to be connected and involved. 

We are not perfect at this and the change is still taking place. Just today I heard of instances in two separate ministries that needed adjustments. The good thing is that we are noticing it and making the changes. 

Really the problem and the solution are found in one word: family. If we know that the problem is because we are too familiar with our family then we need to love one another and overlook offenses because we are family. In the Bible we are told to treat our elders as father and mothers, young women as sisters and young men as brothers. We are the family of God. All brothers and sisters in the Lord. 

Families can have their issues. Especially large ones. But family also has the closest bond of all, blood. We are bound together by the blood of Jesus. We are family and we need to stick together, love one another and prefer one another above our own interests. 

What would a church, business or home look like if we truly started doing this? What are some practical ways to do this?

Day 192 - You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do

"Jess came a bit later due to managing the women's conference over the phone."

We took a vacation and we're having dinner when this happened last year. I have often had text messages to read an e-mail while I was out of the office. Similarly I have had to take care of personal business from the office and have had to leave work to take care of my family. 

Life has a way of intruding on our perfect lines we have made to protect our work and our family. We need those lines and need to respect our work and protect our family. But we also have to do what we gotta do. There will be times we have to take care of business at dinner time. There will also be times I have to leave work to take care of my children. 

Wisdom and integrity will guide us in this area. Wisdom will say stay or go, now or later, too much or too little. Integrity will say stay late since you took care of personal business, or, take the family out because you have given so much to the job. 

Our families don't have to suffer nor do we have to slack on the job. We can not only balance but have a wise approach that maintains our integrity at work and at home. 

How can we better balance the needs of the home and the job? What helps you to manage both?