26 Aug The Shepherd’s Staff – September 2022

The first week in September begins a six-week journey through annual staff reviews and evaluations. This may appear to be an arduous task but, quite frankly, it is more of a blessing than a burden. These meetings allow the elders to connect with each staff member, understand any struggles, celebrate the successes and most of all, recognize the blessings of the past year. As you see around our church and in our community, our staff is a blessing in many ways. The commitment to further God’s Kingdom and share the unfailing love of Christ is shown through their love for what each one does day-in and day-out.

With that in mind, one of the challenges that we face as followers of Christ is that work can be viewed as a burden. People look upon work as an affliction and that can lead to an overwhelming amount of stress. So, one question that we like to ask is: What does God have to say about that? I’m glad you asked! Paul has some good insight about work in the third chapter of Colossians. Paul lays it on very thick right out of the gate in verse 1 and 2 by saying, “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.” With our heart set on Christ, we have a new direction and purpose.

Paul then gets in our business by declaring for us in verses 16 and 17 to “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father’”. By working “as a representative of the Lord Jesus,” our goals should be redirected to glorify Him in all we say and do; thus, being a light into the dark world. We then exemplify verse 23 that says for us to “work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than people.”

Paul’s challenge to us is to fix our hearts on Christ, be a representative of Him, and work as if we are working for the Lord. One of the many benefits of having our hearts set on Christ is that our work will take on a whole new purpose and become a true blessing.

As the elders and the staff prepare for these annual reviews, we ask that our congregation pray specifically for our seven awesome staff members by name for the next several weeks. Please pray for Chris Clontz, Donny Baldridge, Jennifer Driggers, Felecia Motsinger, Greg Moore, Carolyn Charette, and Tim Starbuck. Thank you for all you do to share the love of Christ with the people of our community and do it as representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Bo Sink
• Joe Hayworth
• Eric Hilton
• Steve Cranford
• Kevin Logan
• Jay Payne
• Vince Brown
• Daniel Rich
• Jon Sloan