Tired of Toiling
“Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.”
(Proverbs 23:4 ESV)
(Proverbs 23:4 ESV)
I’m a busy guy. I like to do a lot of things. But lately, it has become more of a ‘have to’ with many things and less of a ‘get to’. I run a ministry (paid), am one of the pastors of a church (jewels in my crown), and started a pressure washing business (paid, most of the time). I enjoy each one very much, but as of the last 6 months or so we have had a heck of a time making ends meet.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about the struggle and value it’s importance in our sanctification. Also, I understand that being the head of my family sometimes requires me to have to say ‘no’ or a ‘not right now,’ but I never thought it would become so frequent. I am not opposed to working hard and I don’t want to point the finger, blame the economy, or gas prices. However, I am pretty tired and a bit discouraged. My good friend Kempton one time warned me not to grab Hagar to make an Ishmael when God had been promising Isaac (See Genesis 16). So, I don’t want to run after or invent one business/job/ministry opportunity or another, especially just for money, however I don’t want to miss the ‘life raft’ and call it waiting on God, when I’m just being complacent.
Please do not read this and feel sorry for me. I believe James 1:2-4. Please just pray for us that God would meet some specific needs and give us some rest.
Sermon Series Branding
Here is a response I gave to the following blog entry on 22 Words:
Sermon series branding: If your church does it, does it help? If they don’t, why not?
It seems like there’s an increasing trend of churches creating complete designs—logos, websites, previews, commercials, hype—around each new sermon series.
Here was my response:
Good question. Perhaps it is a question of why, how, and who. Why are you doing it? How does this fit with the vision/mission that God has given your community? Who are you hoping to appeal to?
As we can see above, many have indicated that they are beyond the flash and the advertisement. Others find it helpful to use multimedia as a means to connect with their people. If your community is in the middle of a highly affluent, tech savvy culture, then that might be an influencing factor.
Where do I stand? Well, on the one-hand I don’t really care. A good friend of mine pastors a church and they have banners, signs, theme videos, etc. However, he spends way more time preparing the message than worrying about the aesthetics. However, there are many folks who buy the whole package from a larger, more ‘influential’ church and then hopes that will be what is necessary to honor God and make disciples. That seems a bit lazy and I would argue that there are deeper issues at hand than whether or not they are ‘branding’ their sermon series.
Lastly, it would be prudent to understand the answers to the questions listed above before passing judgment on whether that practice is appropriate or not. It’s easy for me to forget what it was like being lost, what it was like being a young Christian, and be a lot more critical than I have the right to be. As a young preacher, I have to point myself back to John 13 and ask myself the question, “Does this honor God, teach the people, and convey humility?” I believe that in some contexts we must humble ourselves, even if that means a brochure/theme/web design in order to best serve our people. Even if we’re too mature in our faith to worry about silly things like that…
Thoughts?
