In the midst of competing demands, keep your eye on the most important goal in church communication

Lesson 8 Nehemiah for church communicators

As I was reading through Nehemiah to get a picture of the whole story, I was struck by how many distractions Nehemiah had to face: ridicule that turned into vicious attacks; workers who wouldn't work, who were afraid and tired; dealing with poor people who had been unjustly treated; political schemes that stretched from Jerusalem to Babylon; corruption in ministry.

His situation reminded me of the reality of most church communicators today--that you do your job in the midst of many demands and distractions. Very few church communicators have the luxury of doing only church communications. Usually you are part of a multi-tasking church staff with answering the phone, dealing with emergencies, staff meetings and congregation crisis all being part of your daily job. In that we can take inspiration from Nehemiah because no matter what else he had to deal with, he never lost sight of his primary task: build the wall.

In church communications, the core motivation, inspiration, and reason for all I do and what I want to pass on to everyone who attends my seminars or reads my materials is that the primary task of our communications is to fully fulfill the Great Commission, to introduce people to Jesus as savior and to help them become mature disciples.

To fully fulfill the Great Commission is our true north. It is the measure by which we evaluate all our work.

There were many days that I'm sure Nehemiah was not able to concentrate totally on his task and days he felt little was accomplished. Yet, though side-tracked temporarily, he always returned to his goal.

For all of us, the challenge is similar. The phone rings, an emergency referral has to be made; a lonely person wanders by your office and you take time for a chat to comfort a hurting heart; a financial report needs to be finished--and you've still got the deadline to create an inspiring newsletter, both in print and online in the next few days.

I don't know why God doesn't protect us from these interruptions; why he doesn't allow us to do the work he called us to do without distractions. But he has decided to allow these things to enter our lives and like Nehemiah, if we keep our eyes on him, we can trust him to help us accomplish the tasks he's given us. Even more, if we keep our mind on our goal, he will use our communications to help people come to know him and become his mature disciples.