Making A Big Impact

Someone once told me, everyone wants to make a big impact, but it's taking care of the small things that get it done. I cherish this wisdom. It reminds me that if I ever want to be effective in ministry it starts with the little things. Media is surrounded by the cool and the big. Media is flashy and it gets people's attention. This makes media a great tool to reach a culture that is saturated in it. But we can quickly forget that there are important foundational elements to our ministry (yes, you are all ministers...you minister through media).  Here is a list of things that I feel is important in creating solid foundation for ministry. And though these things may seem "little" they support the rest of our ministry.

• Time alone with God: This is the most basic and fundamentally important part to doing ministry.  Without this, you will find nothing but burnout and frustration. This keeps you focused on why you sacrifice your time and talent to do what you do for the church. This keeps you focused on what your true love needs to be...God!
• Character: Excellence comes from focus on the small details. An excellent character comes from doing the right thing no matter how inconvenient and unimportant. Character is vital to our ministry. Are we perfect? No...but we repent and get back to doing the right thing.
• Take Care of Yourself: No this isn't self help...self indulgent...self focused, taking care of yourself. Ministry takes sacrifice and dying to yourself. But this is how you become most effective for your ministry...if you're tired your work slacks...if you're out of shape you wear out quicker...if you aren't taking measures to grow your faith (such as making sure you are taking part in the corporate gathering..i.e. sitting in church, not just serving) your ministry will be less or ineffective and you will just become a casualty of burn out. 
• Stay Connected: This almost falls under the "take care of yourself" but it's more about realizing that you aren't doing this alone.  Stay connected to your small group...stay connected to your team...stay connected to the church.  Isolation will wipe you out.

What we do here is extremely important and it's way bigger than any one of us. We have to stay focused on the little things! The little things matter.

Peace,
Chris