One part of my presentation (and the preparation for it) that really captured my thoughts was the concern for the language we speak. All too often, we fall into the belief that we should be able to speak our language and expect others to understand it and grasp what we are saying. When they ignore or reject what we are saying, we can easily place all of the responsibility on our audience while never asking ourselves if we communicated in the right way.

I have a passion for ministry in Brazil and enjoyed the privilege of leading groups there to do missions work. Never did we arrive in Rio expecting that the people we would minister with would speak fluent English. Instead, we took time to learn some Portuguese and we arranged to have an interpreter ready when necessary. We made every effort to speak the language of the people we were with.

The same thing applies in the areas we all live and serve in. The church, reaching out to the community and the world, must be willing to learn the language of the people we are speaking to. We cannot simply expect that our words have the same meaning and that our methods of communication are the same. They are not. Even though the learning curve is significant and seems to continue to change, we must not step back.

When I was young, the church found its greatest growth through its members having children. People remained committed to their church and people who moved into the area typically looked for a church of the same denomination they previously attended. There was tremendous denominational loyalty. By the time I began in ministry, people were shopping for churches based upon the programs they offered. They would often change congregations based upon their needs and the seasons of their lives.

Today, people are seeking something real and a place where they can be engaged and connected. They want to be known and to know others, and they want to be a part of something that is bigger than they are, something that enables them to make a difference. The church can meet these needs and become stronger in the process, but we will need to speak the language of a new day.

Change can be intimidating, but what wonderful opportunities it presents. Thank God the message of divine love and saving grace remains unchanging. Thank God the Holy Spirit enables and empowers us to face a changing world and speak a relevant word. Thank God we have the privilege of living is such exciting times, and when it all seems overwhelming, take heart in John Wesley’s final words, “The best is, God is with us.”

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The real challenge is keeping that focus. Every day, I try to put those three things first in my thoughts and then in my actions, but there are often so many distractions that it is easy to lose focus. The denomination has paperwork it wants. There are meetings to attend, calls to make, and emails to write. Occasionally, there are small fires to put out, and there is the reality that other people think they know your job description better than you do. It the midst of it all, it is hard to attend to what is truly most important.

At one point, early in our ministry, my wife gave me a small cartoon of a man (clearly a pastor) sitting in his chair looking quite frazzled as his wife smiles at him and says, “Always remember dear, Jesus loves you and everyone else has a wonderful plan for your life.” It made me smile, but there was truth in the humor.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do and these are just the challenges that come to cloud the more significant responsibilities of ministry, and more importantly, what happens to me, happens to you too. Every calling from pastor to parent, evangelist to engineer, has it’s core foci and its distractions. Each of us must take responsibility for our calling and see that we do not lose our true focus in the midst of a pile of daily details.

Here are some of the tools I use to keep my focus:

1. Put first things first. Make a plan that schedules time for what is most important. There will always be a litany of urgent requests crying out for your attention, but the loudest voice is not always the one to be listening to.

2. Set times each day to check your course. Just like navagaing a trip, it is important to check your position and the path you are taking.

3. Never stop taking direction from God. It is easy to trust in our own management skills to get us though, but God’s way is not always our way, and while we may “get through” on our own, we may miss the greater blessing God has in store if we follow his path.

4. Learn to say, “no.” All of us want others to like us and we can give in to unnecessary, and sometimes unrealistic, expectations in order to make others happy. It is good to care about other people, but only we can take responsibility for our calling. We must do what we were called to do and that may mean not doing some things others think we should do.

5. Learn from mistakes and practice grace. At the end of the day, if you realize that you lost focus on your way, discover what pulled you away and prayerfully discern how to bolster that part of your life and ministry to protect it from another occurance in the future. Don’t give up or give in to frustration. Accept that you are human, trust in the love of God and look to the Holy Spirit to guide you forward.

My grandfather used to say, “Charlie, what gets your attention, gets you.” Since I want God to have me in his hand, I want to give my attention to God. I trust you do too. That is what makes the effort worthwhile.

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The youth were having fun drawing on the blacktop, when several of them decided they all needed flower faces. Soon the parking lot was full of these drawings.

The group was cleaning up to prepare for a heated game of capture the flag, when one of our youth said, “Wait, Pastor Chuck needs one.” She looked at me and began to draw. She even captured my head wear when she drew my “bandanna flower face.”

There was, and is, a big smile on my face. It turns out, there is a great deal of strength to be found in joy, especially the joy that comes from God. Soon the rain will wash the drawings from the parking lot, but mark on my heart will be there for quite a while.

Pastor Chuck’s Bandanna Flower Face

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