HEALTHY CHURCH: Say No to Activity
In Simple Life by Thom and Art Rainer, they stated, “You’re faced with the stark reality that your life may have too many good things. The simple life demands focus. That means we have to eliminate some of the good things we do… It is not easy to say no to good things.” Our lives are the culmination of our choices — choices you made decades ago and choices you are still making today. Sometimes, you look back at your choices with satisfaction, and other times, you view them with regret. For most of us, although there are exceptions, we are where we are in life by choice. You can’t wave a magical wand to change everything and fix it.
You must come face to face with what stands in the way of where you are and where God desires you to be. For example, you can look at your church and see many activities, but are you making disciples who make disciples? It is easy to always be busy adding activities and programs to the church calendar while neglecting God’s mission. Are you seeing lives transformed and changed through an intentional discipleship process? The Rainers continued, “Activities are replacing purpose. We are so busy doing activities that we are neglecting what really matters.” Once again, it is time to think about Mary and Martha.
Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” What does it actually mean to number your days? It requires regularly pausing to consider our days in light of God’s ways. It means you regularly recognize the finite gift of your life here on earth and seek to gain “a heart of wisdom.” God has called you to be a steward of what He has given you, and being a faithful steward sometimes means saying no. Stewardship demands arranging and/or rearranging your daily life and ministry to reflect God’s priorities (Matt. 6:33).
Having too many activities does not happen overnight but is the addition of more and more year after year. Your heart was in the right place, but after a period of time, you are overwhelmed and not sure what to do. It only takes saying yes a couple of times to escalate and develop into a much bigger problem. Most people do not develop a debt problem overnight but instead keep charging up their credit cards year after year. You do not become 50 pounds overweightduring the holidays, but instead, it happens by adding too many calories day after day over time. Problems usually begin small, but they do not remain small.
Simple Life offers this three-step process to help you to say no — “focus, eliminate and sacrifice.” The time has come to focus on your busyness, but the challenge is that when you are overwhelmed and overcommitted, it is very difficult to give anything your undivided attention. There is no silver bullet that will instantaneously fix everything because single-minded evaluation is required. Focus is defined as “the center of interest or activity. The state or quality of having or producing clear visual definition.” When life ministry is extremely hectic, it makes it almost impossible to focus on what needs to be focused on.
The time has come to figure out what needs to be eliminated. This is not an easy task, but much needed. Quite often, there is no easy solution. If the activity is someone’s pet project, they are very invested in it being successful, but is it being effective? Is it the best use of your time, effort and resources? Is it accomplishing your stated goals of who you are as God’s church and what He has called you to accomplish? It may be a “good” thing, but is it the “best” thing? Remember, you are the culmination of your choices, and in the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), Jesus said, “Mary has made the right choice.”
How could that be? Martha was the one doing all kinds of “good” things for the Lord, and she certainly believed she was doing them for “good” reasons. In Simple Life, they explained, “Maybe for a moment, there was something that took precedence over a good action… She (Martha) needed to relinquish her serving to participate in something far greater and far more important.” Never allow your activity to rob you of your adoration and/or distract you from what is most important to the heart of God. Quit telling the Father what you can and cannot do and simply seek and submit to His agenda, His plan, His direction and His goals.
The Rainers stated this well: “While she was frantically preparing for the feast of men, she was missing a feast for the heart.” How easy it is to become so focused on activity and serving the Lord that you begin to base your spirituality on how busy you are instead of His power and presence in your life. Revelation 2:2-4 makes this clear, “I know thy works, and thy labour… for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted… Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” Focus, eliminate and sacrifice.
How do you begin saying no to certain activities that are not bad activities? One pastor stated, “I am committed to leading our people to become a church that really understands what we’re supposed to be doing and why we’re supposed to be doing it.” Have you become so overcommitted to so many good things that it is almost impossible to do them well? Maybe less is better? The Rainers continued, “You have to let go of some good stuff. Sacrifice is not easy, or it wouldn’t be called sacrifice.” Have you become so busy that you no longer have time for the best things? Figure out what activity you need to say no to and say no now.
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Larry Barker
Director of Church Planting and Church Health Larry Barker submits a weekly column titled, Healthy Church Solutions, designed to strengthen and encourage the local church.
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