I love starting new things! You name it, I enjoy starting it. I start diets constantly, I begin working out at the gym frequently and always try new things whenever I get involved with new projects.
I love meeting new people, starting new conversations and have started to read ‘The Bible in a year’ many, many times. I have even planted a new church!
Every time I start a new thing, I find myself hopeful, seeking a promise of something better, something amazing!
On the other hand, many people I know are not so keen on new beginnings. They have a fear of change and new things; they have the view ‘If it ain’t broke why fix it?’ This is understandable as new beginnings can lead to new failures, new disappointments, new pain and new loss.
Still others are cynical about change, crowing that ‘we have tried that before and it didn’t work’, holding onto their own view of what should happen and resistant of collective views that differ.
Even with my own hopeful attitude towards change and starting new things, I often feel as though I have failed when what I have begun does not work or does not rise to my expectations (as I sit here, a bit overweight and almost able to recite the first two chapters of Genesis word for word).
But as a follower of Jesus and as a denomination that desires to see Jesus made known, starting new things and change cannot be an option; rather, it is a defining characteristic.
The Baptist Churches of NSW and ACT are on the brink of a New Beginning! We are starting down a road that will define the future of the Baptist Denomination. It is a road that has been well trodden, with many churches having already walked the road, but a road that all churches will need to walk – the road to fulfilling God’s purpose.
The fact is that New Beginnings are not about how you feel before you start, whether you are confident and hopeful or whether you are fearful or cynical. New beginnings are about the first step – that physical sign of commitment that says I may fully agree or partly agree with the new vision but I will help to make it work, not for glory and not for favour, but for the desire to see the Kingdom of God expand as we work together in love.
We are in a season that will be defined not by our individuality, but by our willingness to work together as one body, sharpening each other and embracing our differences for a common cause.
What can you get involved in? Revive needs your help, Together magazine wants to share what you are doing. Are you working with your neighbouring Baptist Church? Are you praying with other churches in your local area? And are you across the Direction 2012 changes and supportive of what is happening?
Let us resolve this year to embrace our decisions as a denomination, even if we do not fully agree with them.
