A Word from Charles

Sitting here at the desk, thinking about 2024 that is around the corner. As a pastor, I would always get excited about the beginning of the New Year. The New Year gave me a clean slate to fill in the months, weeks, and days of the year. I focused my attention on setting goals for that year. Yes, I had personal goals had ls of my own but also, I thought about goals for church. For many years in January, I had a goal setting night for the church body.  I would bring out the white board and we would discuss goals for the coming year. Some years there would be a dozen goals voiced by the church body. One year, there was a tremendous amount of participation and over 60 goals were mentioned. One might criticize the total number of goals, but I saw it as a great opportunity. The church body was thinking of what needed to be accomplished and was showing great interest and energy. In my ministry setting, involving the church body gave ownership to the goals. They were goals that primarily came from the church body and as a pastor gave me a platform to work for the coming year. In the goal setting conversation, I led in some areas that I saw that needed help. When we set goals for the New Year, we did not limit ourselves to a designated number. Sometimes during the year we saw another goal that could be attained in that year. Whether you are in dialogue with the church body, leadership or staff, individuals will claim goals. Claiming goals will result in ownership. Ownership makes a person assume responsibility. When the church claim ownership in a goal, they will assume responsibility and attain that goal will be underway. Assuming responsibility will engage the church.

I remember I interviewed a pastor on setting goals. I met him at a restaurant, he talked to me about his pastoral experience. He began to write on a napkin on how to set goals. He began first with the needs in church. What were the needs? Did we need more people in small group Bible study? Did we need outreach events. Do we need more participation in ongoing ministries? He shared about the importance of identifying the need. We can set a specific goal by identifying the need. He said the needs are easy to name and setting the goal is not difficult. Knowing the strategy to meet the need and accomplish the goal is a difficult task.  Some of the goals are considered as low hanging fruit. These are the easy attainable goals that can be accomplished with little effort. So, the strategy was not as difficult for these kinds of goals. Regardless of how great or small a goal should always be celebrated when a goal is attained. In a NASCAR race there is always a victory lap at the end. We can neglect the Victory lap when a goal is attained and miss an opportunity to celebrate and rejoice. Celebrating and rejoicing can strengthen the church on achieving other goals and makes the church feel it is accomplishing a task. Some are low hanging fruit while others can be at the top of the tree. Those goals that are at the top of the tree may take 10 years to accomplish the goal. The goal can be attained in incremental steps. These incremental steps may not be as exciting but in the end will prove rewarding.

So let us think about today. It is easy to think of the glory days of the past. It is easy to think about the future, about where we want to be. It is not easy to think about today but today is what is important. Today is what we can do right now. Today can be the glory days of the past and important to the fulfillment for the future in our spiritual journey. So, 2024 is about to be here, what are we going to do?   



Bro. Charles