Touching Base! Part 7

Finding the right balance

You would probably admit that your past week had a lot to do with balancing your priorities, making sure you were not neglecting certain things, being careful to not work too much, eat too much or sleep too little. You can probably think of certain areas in your life right now that are out of balance, areas that are your greatest challenge when it comes to keeping all the balls up in the air and not going crazy.

Well, balance is a key issue at Bethel these days. For example we realize that there are many good issues we are addressing (i.e. staffing, governance issues, communication, pastoral care) when it comes to in-house issues. There is a lot of energy that goes in to ministering to the church. We are grateful for the many who have stepped up to fill the holes and shoulder some responsibility here at Bethel. Yet, to stay in balance we need to look beyond ourselves, to the world around us, to the world that Christ has placed us in. We need to continually give our best for the body of Christ and also to give our best to the community around us. The Aberdeen clean-up teams and Bethel Houses are two examples that come to mind when thinking of the larger community.

As we journey together it is imperative that we stay balanced. We need to live with the good tension of intentionally allocating our resources to minister to the body and at the same time generously allocating our resources to the world around us. Sometimes believers in the North American Church think first and only about themselves. They are the centre of the universe. Their language is very “I “centred. However, there are other Christians who have been so turned off by that kind of self-consumed Church that they have swung to the extreme where it’s all about those outside the Church. Let’s do what the writer of Hebrews said we should do, keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Then and only then will we strike the right balance and be the church that pleases Jesus!

Mark Kotchapaw