Friday, March 7, 2008

Choosing My Battles

Some battles are not worth fighting. They cost you more in wounds than in spoils received. Every hill is not worth dying on; there is nothing strategic gained. Not all things are worth going to the mat over; they simply drain your energy. On the other hand some battles must be fought; the stakes are too high to ignore.

As a church leader, I have learned these are the battles that are NOT worth fighting:
· Trying to justify our vision and mission to people who just don’t get it
· People who criticize our church, yet have never attended it
· People who think evangelism and reaching the lost is shallow
· Arguing about Bible translations, dress codes, or music styles
· Arguing about preaching styles
· Trying to explain every decision that is made

Here are the battles I WILL fight: (in a New York minute)
· Defending our mission & protecting our vision
· Standing firmly on our Essential Beliefs and maintaining doctrinal integrity
· Outreach
· Those who are disloyal, or who have their own agenda
· Troublemakers who do attend our church
· Those who are living in unrepentant sin
· For myself, my walk with God, my family, and my time

Romans 16:17-18 (KJV) 17Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. 18For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.