We live in a society that increasingly lacks civility in its dealings with one another. I suppose the current economy has made this worse as people are out of work and losing their homes, but people have been growing more rude and litigious for several years. We see this openly on the radio and television talk shows. A guest is asked a question but is interrupted by the host almost as soon as she begins her answer. There is seldom a civil discussion heard in such settings as each side wants to see who can talk the loudest to ensure their talking points are heard. Less openly, but even more disturbing, are the stories of road rage we read about. Cut in too close to a car and shots might be fired. At the very least you'll probably receive an obscene gesture. There are an abundance of court room shows on TV now that show former friends and lovers suing one another over a television set or a dent fender on the car or some other rather insignificant issue. More disturbing are the family members who sue one another over an inheritance or some other issue. We are a rude and impolite people who look to the courts to settle even the smallest of issues. Unfortunately, the same can be said of many of our churches.
In my 2 1/2 decades of ministry I have seen unbelievable behavior on the part of church members. Business meetings turn into shouting matches because someone doesn't get his way. Parking lots become the informal meeting places for disgruntled members who try to recruit people to their side of the issue. Someone reads a newspaper headline about some action that a denomination or individual took and immediately wants to pull the church out of the denomination without looking deeper into the issue. Chuches run off their pastors without providing a fair severance package that will partially provide for the pastor and his or family during the search process for another church to serve. Churches split over the smallest of issues. Pastors and/or churches hire lawyers to protect their interests from the other side. I know of one church that requested extra police patrols because someone had threatened to burn down the parsonage to get the pastor out. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.
Many people in our society and many of our churches are unable to discuss the issues that divide them. Rather than conducting a civil discussion we immediately go into defense mode. It's like we must defend God on every issue. Believe me, God does not care what color carpet your church installs or what hymnal you use. He does care very much what you are doing to minister to those who are separated from Him because of their sins. He does care about what your church is doing to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and provide shelter to the homeless. He also cares about how we treat one another. The Bible teaches us that the world will know we are Christians by the love we show one another.
Will people in the church disagree? Of course. As someone once said, if two people don't disagree occasionally one of them is not necessary. But we can disagree without being disagreeable. We can speak the truth in love and seek to understand the other person's perspective. We can often find areas of agreement that will allow us to move forward rather than remaining stuck in our positions. As the recipients of much grace in our own lives, we can offer that same grace to others with whom we may disagree. We can certainly be civil to people who have been created in the image of God. And, at times, we may have to accept that we will not agree with others on every issue and find a way to continue to relate to one another with respect.
Jerry Falwell was a lightening rod for much of his life. He was not afraid to speak his mind nor was he afraid to debate anyone on any issue. He may not have always been right in everything he did or said, but he was passionate about his beliefs. One of the interesting things after his death was the number of his critics who spoke so highly of him. They often debated issues with Falwell on the national stage, and they held views diametrically opposed to his, but after his death they spoke of their appreciation for him and for the friendships they enjoyed with him. One reported that when there was a tragedy in his family Falwell was the first person he called. Another said that he was always amazed at how respectfully Falwell treated people even while traveling. Falwell held strong views which he defended, but he defended those views with civility and grace towards those who disagreed with him.
We need to recapture that ability in both our society and in our churches. Shouting matches do not resolve anything. Questioning the character of an opponent does not prove your point. Slurs, put-downs, and rumors do not strengthen our argument. We can once again become a civil society if each of us will work at it. Our churches must return to civility if we want to influence this world for the sake of the Kingdom, and some of us need to begin working on that today.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Secrets
Your organization is only as healthy as the secrets you keep.
This is one of the things I discuss in my "Healthy Small Church" workshop. It's true of any organization whether you are talking about a church, a business, or even a family. When secrets are kept, the organization can never be as healthy as it can be when things are out in the open. And one of the things you can be sure of is that eventually your secrets will come out, and when they do the results are usually worse than if the secrets had not been kept in the first place.
I am aware of a church going through difficult times because the leadership has tried to keep secrets from the congregation. Of course, they say they were just trying to protect the congregation, and that may in fact be what they were trying to do. But, that is not what some in the congregation believe now that the secrets are coming out. What the church is now having to address are trust issues, and it is doubtful these issues will be resolved for months, and probably years, from now.
When I was pastor at Hebron we tried to keep people informed of what was going on in the church. Our finances were published every quarter for our business meeting and copies were left out for people who did not attend the meeting to pick up. The financial report showed every dollar that came in and every dollar that went out. There were no secret meetings held to address issues that came up in the life of our church. At least if there were, they were kept secret from me as well! We tried to keep everything that was done in the church in the open, and if questions were asked we could answer honestly because we had nothing to hide.
One issue die arise during my pastorate there. Some people were concerned that something had been arranged in secret. When one person first heard of it a handful of concerned members immediately began their investigation. It sounded like the Watergate hearings. "When did you know about this, and what did you do?" Despite the fears of these concerned members, nothing had been done in secret. We had nothing to hide. We could answer all their questions honestly and with our integrity intact.
Are there secrets in your church? I encourage you to bring them out into the open. They will probably be revealed anyway, and the sooner they are made known to people the less damage they can do. I also encourage you to refuse to operate secretly. Keep all your dealings in the open so that you can maintain the trust of your people. Once you lose that trust it may never be recovered, and without trust you cannot lead your church.
This is one of the things I discuss in my "Healthy Small Church" workshop. It's true of any organization whether you are talking about a church, a business, or even a family. When secrets are kept, the organization can never be as healthy as it can be when things are out in the open. And one of the things you can be sure of is that eventually your secrets will come out, and when they do the results are usually worse than if the secrets had not been kept in the first place.
I am aware of a church going through difficult times because the leadership has tried to keep secrets from the congregation. Of course, they say they were just trying to protect the congregation, and that may in fact be what they were trying to do. But, that is not what some in the congregation believe now that the secrets are coming out. What the church is now having to address are trust issues, and it is doubtful these issues will be resolved for months, and probably years, from now.
When I was pastor at Hebron we tried to keep people informed of what was going on in the church. Our finances were published every quarter for our business meeting and copies were left out for people who did not attend the meeting to pick up. The financial report showed every dollar that came in and every dollar that went out. There were no secret meetings held to address issues that came up in the life of our church. At least if there were, they were kept secret from me as well! We tried to keep everything that was done in the church in the open, and if questions were asked we could answer honestly because we had nothing to hide.
One issue die arise during my pastorate there. Some people were concerned that something had been arranged in secret. When one person first heard of it a handful of concerned members immediately began their investigation. It sounded like the Watergate hearings. "When did you know about this, and what did you do?" Despite the fears of these concerned members, nothing had been done in secret. We had nothing to hide. We could answer all their questions honestly and with our integrity intact.
Are there secrets in your church? I encourage you to bring them out into the open. They will probably be revealed anyway, and the sooner they are made known to people the less damage they can do. I also encourage you to refuse to operate secretly. Keep all your dealings in the open so that you can maintain the trust of your people. Once you lose that trust it may never be recovered, and without trust you cannot lead your church.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Bad blogger
I want to apologize for not writing lately. As I mentioned in my last post, I was going on vacation. We planned to do some painting on the house, but we got busy doing several other things that we did not have time to paint. The good news is that everything else we did was important to and needed to be done as much as the painting did.
After being off for a week my workload was pretty heavy when I came back, and I just have not been able to take the time to write. I completed another chapter of my DMin thesis and submitted it. I had a workshop on Church Hospitality that I had to prepare to present to a church this past Saturday. We had an all day staff meeting. And in addition to these things I had my usual assortment of church issues to address, some good and some not so good. Needless to say, it's been hectic, and I do hope you'll forgive my lack of writing this month.
I do want to direct your attention to the blog at http://z410.blogspot.com. They are in week six of discussing my book The Healthy Small Church. There have been some excellent comments shared in that discussion that I think you'll want to read. This week's topic looks at the chapter that addresses change in the church. We all know how much churches like change! Ed McCallum provides some great questions at the end of his post and encourages church leaders to sit down with their church leadership and discuss them. I'm looking forward to reading the comments people have for this week's discussion.
Next week I will be with the American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and Delaware leading the "Healthy Small Church" workshop at four sites in their region. If you are a member of one of their churches I encourage you to plan to attend the meeting closest to you. I look forward to meeting some of you at those meetings. You can check the locations on their web site. If you would like this day-long workshop to come to your area, please contact me for 2010 dates. I provide other workshops for small and bivocational churches and their pastors as well.
On a personal note, I would ask for your prayers. There are several personal issues that we are dealing with right now. One involves a granddaughter who has contracted the H1N1 virus. She is not real sick with it, but of course everyone in the family has been exposed. One brother and our daughter have experienced some symptoms and we are waiting to see if anyone becomes ill from it. In addition to that issue, there are several others, so please keep us in your prayers. Thank you.
After being off for a week my workload was pretty heavy when I came back, and I just have not been able to take the time to write. I completed another chapter of my DMin thesis and submitted it. I had a workshop on Church Hospitality that I had to prepare to present to a church this past Saturday. We had an all day staff meeting. And in addition to these things I had my usual assortment of church issues to address, some good and some not so good. Needless to say, it's been hectic, and I do hope you'll forgive my lack of writing this month.
I do want to direct your attention to the blog at http://z410.blogspot.com. They are in week six of discussing my book The Healthy Small Church. There have been some excellent comments shared in that discussion that I think you'll want to read. This week's topic looks at the chapter that addresses change in the church. We all know how much churches like change! Ed McCallum provides some great questions at the end of his post and encourages church leaders to sit down with their church leadership and discuss them. I'm looking forward to reading the comments people have for this week's discussion.
Next week I will be with the American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and Delaware leading the "Healthy Small Church" workshop at four sites in their region. If you are a member of one of their churches I encourage you to plan to attend the meeting closest to you. I look forward to meeting some of you at those meetings. You can check the locations on their web site. If you would like this day-long workshop to come to your area, please contact me for 2010 dates. I provide other workshops for small and bivocational churches and their pastors as well.
On a personal note, I would ask for your prayers. There are several personal issues that we are dealing with right now. One involves a granddaughter who has contracted the H1N1 virus. She is not real sick with it, but of course everyone in the family has been exposed. One brother and our daughter have experienced some symptoms and we are waiting to see if anyone becomes ill from it. In addition to that issue, there are several others, so please keep us in your prayers. Thank you.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Vacation
This past weekend we enjoyed a few days visiting our son and his family who live near Philadelphia. We were able to enjoy watching our granddaughter play in a soccer game and our grandson play in a football game. Our time went by too quickly, but it was a very enjoyable time. I continue to be on vacation this week, but we probably won't go anywhere. We need to do a few repairs on the house and paint a couple of rooms.
I hope you take your vacations each year. Too many pastors, including bivocational ministers, do not. We need the time away from the demands of pastoral ministry, and our families need us to slip away with them as well. In my earlier years of ministry I would never take but one week of the two weeks I had coming. As a result, there came a time when I was burned out, depressed, and of little use to anyone. I had given and given and never taken the time to replace what I was giving out. I learned a lot during my time of recovery, and one of the things I learned was that I needed to take my vacation time in order to recharge. I took every week of vacation I had coming after that, and I encourage you to do so the same.
Please remember this...taking care of yourself is not selfish. If you do not take care of yourself you may find that you will come to a place where you cannot care for others. Taking care of yourself is good stewardship. Take your vacation, take your days off, and do not allow others to make you feel guilty for doing so.
I won't post much this week. It's hard to type and hold a paintbrush at the same time!
I hope you take your vacations each year. Too many pastors, including bivocational ministers, do not. We need the time away from the demands of pastoral ministry, and our families need us to slip away with them as well. In my earlier years of ministry I would never take but one week of the two weeks I had coming. As a result, there came a time when I was burned out, depressed, and of little use to anyone. I had given and given and never taken the time to replace what I was giving out. I learned a lot during my time of recovery, and one of the things I learned was that I needed to take my vacation time in order to recharge. I took every week of vacation I had coming after that, and I encourage you to do so the same.
Please remember this...taking care of yourself is not selfish. If you do not take care of yourself you may find that you will come to a place where you cannot care for others. Taking care of yourself is good stewardship. Take your vacation, take your days off, and do not allow others to make you feel guilty for doing so.
I won't post much this week. It's hard to type and hold a paintbrush at the same time!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sermon Outline
A few weeks ago I posted a sermon outline on my web site at www.bivocationalministries.com. Some of you have told me you used that outline for a sermon and how much you appreciated it. My plan is to post a new outline each month, and there is a new one on the site now.
I encourage you to use these outlines. You probably won't use it exactly how it is written, and you probably shouldn't. Make it your own with your own illustrations and applications. Make it fit your personality and purpose. God may open your eyes to an entire series of messages from this one outline. That would be great for sermon planning!
Speaking of sermon planning...when I was a pastor I would use the fall of the year to plan my sermons for the upcoming year. I would sit down with four sheets of legal paper and write out the dates of each Sunday of the new year. I would have two lines for each date since our church had both morning and evening services on most Sundays. In the margin I would then write in special days from the church calendar so I wouldn't forget them. At that point I was ready to start thinking about what messages I would preach on each Sunday. I enjoyed preaching series of sermons whenever possible because I believe that allows the minister to approach a subject with more depth than is possible in just a 30 minute sermon. If I determined that a subject or text would need four Sundays then I would look to see where that could fit in with the special Sundays such as Mother's Day or the Advent season so a sermon series would not hit on one of those Sundays. For many years I would preach a series on the family between Mother's Day and Father's Day, and this was often one of the more popular series of messages. In the summer I often preached through a book of the Bible or a long section such as The Sermon on the Mount. This gave our congregation a more in depth look at that book of the Bible or the section, and it made my sermon planning a lot easier. I would try to determine what I would preach each Sunday of the upcoming year. Even if some Sundays were left open in my planning I was always able to plan at least one quarter ahead.
The advantage of doing this is that you are not sitting around on Saturday night still trying to figure out what you are going to preach tomorrow. Instead of starting out each week not knowing what you will preach, you can begin your week actually preparing the message. By creating a preaching schedule you can spend more time in sermon preparation which, hopefully, will lead to better sermons. The time you spend upfront in planning a preaching schedule will be more than offset by the time you save each week in sermon preparation. It also gives you the opportunity to be on the lookout for good illustrations or applications for a text you know you will be preaching from next month. You will be surprised how often you will find items you can incorporate in your sermons simply because you are aware of your upcoming sermon topics. Saving time is a good thing for bivocational ministers and better sermons is frosting on the cake.
I know there are some who refuse to plan their sermons or even prepare a sermon in advance. There are still some who believe they are simply to pray and let the Holy Spirit guide them when they step to the platform. I have endured a few sermons that obviously had no thought go into them before they were delivered, and personally I would not want to blame the Holy Spirit for them. I believe that God can guide us in our study even better than He can guide us in our pulpits. If we believe in the omniscience of God then we can believe that He knows what our congregations need to hear from us six months from now. There is no reason we cannot believe that He can guide us in developing a sermon plan in advance.
One final thought. Sometimes a situation occurs that will cause us to change our sermon, and we need to be sensitive to that. A good example of that was 9/11. The Sunday after 9/11 I did not preach the sermon I had planned for that week. People came to church to hear if God had anything to say about that horrible tragedy. I am aware of a pastor who went ahead and preached a message he had planned six months earlier to preach on that Sunday. Members of his church told me that they would have never known 9/11 happened based on what was done at their church that Sunday. That pastor was soon asked to resign. Some things happen that must be addressed, and we should not be so locked into our preaching plan that we cannot speak to those issues when they happen.
I encourage you to begin planning your preaching at least three months in advance and see if it doesn't make you sermon preparation time more productive. Feel free to use the sermons I will share with you each month in your planning. I also hope you will share with our readers how planning has helped you or the techniques you use to create a preaching schedule.
I encourage you to use these outlines. You probably won't use it exactly how it is written, and you probably shouldn't. Make it your own with your own illustrations and applications. Make it fit your personality and purpose. God may open your eyes to an entire series of messages from this one outline. That would be great for sermon planning!
Speaking of sermon planning...when I was a pastor I would use the fall of the year to plan my sermons for the upcoming year. I would sit down with four sheets of legal paper and write out the dates of each Sunday of the new year. I would have two lines for each date since our church had both morning and evening services on most Sundays. In the margin I would then write in special days from the church calendar so I wouldn't forget them. At that point I was ready to start thinking about what messages I would preach on each Sunday. I enjoyed preaching series of sermons whenever possible because I believe that allows the minister to approach a subject with more depth than is possible in just a 30 minute sermon. If I determined that a subject or text would need four Sundays then I would look to see where that could fit in with the special Sundays such as Mother's Day or the Advent season so a sermon series would not hit on one of those Sundays. For many years I would preach a series on the family between Mother's Day and Father's Day, and this was often one of the more popular series of messages. In the summer I often preached through a book of the Bible or a long section such as The Sermon on the Mount. This gave our congregation a more in depth look at that book of the Bible or the section, and it made my sermon planning a lot easier. I would try to determine what I would preach each Sunday of the upcoming year. Even if some Sundays were left open in my planning I was always able to plan at least one quarter ahead.
The advantage of doing this is that you are not sitting around on Saturday night still trying to figure out what you are going to preach tomorrow. Instead of starting out each week not knowing what you will preach, you can begin your week actually preparing the message. By creating a preaching schedule you can spend more time in sermon preparation which, hopefully, will lead to better sermons. The time you spend upfront in planning a preaching schedule will be more than offset by the time you save each week in sermon preparation. It also gives you the opportunity to be on the lookout for good illustrations or applications for a text you know you will be preaching from next month. You will be surprised how often you will find items you can incorporate in your sermons simply because you are aware of your upcoming sermon topics. Saving time is a good thing for bivocational ministers and better sermons is frosting on the cake.
I know there are some who refuse to plan their sermons or even prepare a sermon in advance. There are still some who believe they are simply to pray and let the Holy Spirit guide them when they step to the platform. I have endured a few sermons that obviously had no thought go into them before they were delivered, and personally I would not want to blame the Holy Spirit for them. I believe that God can guide us in our study even better than He can guide us in our pulpits. If we believe in the omniscience of God then we can believe that He knows what our congregations need to hear from us six months from now. There is no reason we cannot believe that He can guide us in developing a sermon plan in advance.
One final thought. Sometimes a situation occurs that will cause us to change our sermon, and we need to be sensitive to that. A good example of that was 9/11. The Sunday after 9/11 I did not preach the sermon I had planned for that week. People came to church to hear if God had anything to say about that horrible tragedy. I am aware of a pastor who went ahead and preached a message he had planned six months earlier to preach on that Sunday. Members of his church told me that they would have never known 9/11 happened based on what was done at their church that Sunday. That pastor was soon asked to resign. Some things happen that must be addressed, and we should not be so locked into our preaching plan that we cannot speak to those issues when they happen.
I encourage you to begin planning your preaching at least three months in advance and see if it doesn't make you sermon preparation time more productive. Feel free to use the sermons I will share with you each month in your planning. I also hope you will share with our readers how planning has helped you or the techniques you use to create a preaching schedule.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Book discussion
Ed McCallum is leading a discussion of my book The Healthy Small Church at http://z410.blogspot.com/. Ed is with the Evangelical Presyberian Church. Each week he addresses one of the chapters of the book and invites people to respond. Approximately 30 people were encouraged to read the book and contribute to this discussion. There have been some very good comments and insights that pastors have shared in this discussion. I encourage you to check it out.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Communion with God
As mentioned in an earlier post I am currently reading A Quest for Godliness written by J. I. Packer as part of my daily devotional time. This morning I read a section that really spoke to me, and I decided to share it with you.
First, we cannot but conclude that whereas to the Puritans communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not. The measure of our unconcern is the little that we say about it. When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology - but rarely of their daily experience of God. Modern Christian books and magazines contain much about Christian doctrine, Christian standards, problems of Christian conduct, techniques of Christian service - but little about the inner realities of fellowship with God. Our sermons contain much sound doctrine - but little relating to the converse between the soul and the Saviour. We do not spend much time, alone or together, in dwelling on the wonder of the fact that God and sinners have communion at all; no, we just take that for granted, and give our minds to other matters. Thus, we make it plain that communion with God is a smalll thing to us.
From my experience, Packer is absolutely right. As I reflect on my own life and my spiritual journey there have been a few times when I have been overwhelmed by the fact that God was willing to enter my life and adopt me into His family. Occasionally, I will think about how amazing His grace truly is, but I must admit that such times are few and far between. As I think back over 20+ years of preaching, such communion with God has rarely been the topic of any message I have preached. I have taken it for granted and have focused on other aspects of the Christian life. But, isn't such communion really the foundation for all of those other aspects?
In my denomination churches often celebrate the Lord's Supper once a month. Some may only do it quarterly. We often refer to this as communion, and it is conducted in most churches with great reverance with soft organ music playing in the background. However, in reality this celebration is often tacked on at the end of the worship service because it is the appropriate Sunday to schedule it. I fear that most people partaking feel little communion with God during the service. A small glass of grape juice and a dry cracker once a month or once a quarter is a poor substitute for real communion with God.
Once again, Packer has invaded my soul and forced me to think deeply about how incredible it is that a pure, holy God would even consider wanting to relate to such a fallen individual as myself. How imperfect each of us are, and yet a perfect God has chosen to relate to us as a loving Father to his children. He wants to walk with us each day through all the ups and downs that life brings. He has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives that he will bring to pass if we will only stop resisting and allow Him to do so. He wants to lift us out of the foul pits we often place ourselves in and set our feet on solid ground, give us new life, and a renewed sense of joy and peace. And in the process He wants to walk with us through life every single moment of our lives.
I encourage you to take a new look at your life as you read this post. Is your primary focus the relationship you enjoy with God or is it on the things you do for God or the things you hope God will do for you? For me, it is very easy to focus on the things I am doing instead of focusing on the relationship, and I think that might be true of many of us. Packer would encourage us to intentionally focus on the relationship. Never lose sense of the awe that comes when you realize that the Creator of the universe wants to enjoy a relationship with you.
First, we cannot but conclude that whereas to the Puritans communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not. The measure of our unconcern is the little that we say about it. When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology - but rarely of their daily experience of God. Modern Christian books and magazines contain much about Christian doctrine, Christian standards, problems of Christian conduct, techniques of Christian service - but little about the inner realities of fellowship with God. Our sermons contain much sound doctrine - but little relating to the converse between the soul and the Saviour. We do not spend much time, alone or together, in dwelling on the wonder of the fact that God and sinners have communion at all; no, we just take that for granted, and give our minds to other matters. Thus, we make it plain that communion with God is a smalll thing to us.
From my experience, Packer is absolutely right. As I reflect on my own life and my spiritual journey there have been a few times when I have been overwhelmed by the fact that God was willing to enter my life and adopt me into His family. Occasionally, I will think about how amazing His grace truly is, but I must admit that such times are few and far between. As I think back over 20+ years of preaching, such communion with God has rarely been the topic of any message I have preached. I have taken it for granted and have focused on other aspects of the Christian life. But, isn't such communion really the foundation for all of those other aspects?
In my denomination churches often celebrate the Lord's Supper once a month. Some may only do it quarterly. We often refer to this as communion, and it is conducted in most churches with great reverance with soft organ music playing in the background. However, in reality this celebration is often tacked on at the end of the worship service because it is the appropriate Sunday to schedule it. I fear that most people partaking feel little communion with God during the service. A small glass of grape juice and a dry cracker once a month or once a quarter is a poor substitute for real communion with God.
Once again, Packer has invaded my soul and forced me to think deeply about how incredible it is that a pure, holy God would even consider wanting to relate to such a fallen individual as myself. How imperfect each of us are, and yet a perfect God has chosen to relate to us as a loving Father to his children. He wants to walk with us each day through all the ups and downs that life brings. He has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives that he will bring to pass if we will only stop resisting and allow Him to do so. He wants to lift us out of the foul pits we often place ourselves in and set our feet on solid ground, give us new life, and a renewed sense of joy and peace. And in the process He wants to walk with us through life every single moment of our lives.
I encourage you to take a new look at your life as you read this post. Is your primary focus the relationship you enjoy with God or is it on the things you do for God or the things you hope God will do for you? For me, it is very easy to focus on the things I am doing instead of focusing on the relationship, and I think that might be true of many of us. Packer would encourage us to intentionally focus on the relationship. Never lose sense of the awe that comes when you realize that the Creator of the universe wants to enjoy a relationship with you.
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