Balance

As a church, we have made the decision to respond to the hurricanes on three levels.

First, we will respond to specific requests from areas for specific items.
Second, we will assist established groups (Red Cross, salvation Army, etc)
Third, we will adopt one community in Alabama and one in Mississippi.

Our church did not take these commitments lightly. It has meant putting many ongoing and important ministries on hold, and a drastic change in the normal use of our facilities. Our staff has worked long hours at the expense of their areas of responsibility, and they have been away from family for days at a time.

As this all unfolded, we had to make sure we were willing to give what it takes. It has been challenging, stressful, painful and just plain hard. Facilities and people have been pushed to their limits, and there is still more to be done.

Not everyone in our church has the same passion for this effort. Some are ready for things to get back to normal. I understand that desire. Just this morning I struggled with something I felt was important meeting head on with disaster response needs. The two could not coexist.

In the end, I made a compromise, allowing both to happen at a lesser degree than desired.

For those of us who have responsibilities to run ministries and organizations, the need to run those things will eventually clash with the response to the crisis we are in. Our job as leaders is to show the rest of the organization how to do so with intelligence and understanding - not ego and frustration.