LARGE DOORS SWING ON SMALL HINGES

Stafford Greer, Bearspaw Lead Site Pastor

“This year will be different.” - People making New Year’s Resolutions

While there isn’t anything intrinsically special about January 1 in comparison to any other day of the year, it does provide us with the opportunity to mark a new start to our year, a chance to look back on where we have come from, and perhaps make some choices on where we would like to go in the future.

I have felt that the week between Christmas and New Years day - you know, the days where the regular structure of school/work/obligations melt into a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey mashup of semi-consciousness, sugar hangover, and overstimulation - is the perfect opportunity for such reflections.

Over the years, I’ve done goal setting, journaling, or year-long planning. The plans I make during that time don’t always stick, and sometimes it’s because I am unrealistic in my expectations and overestimate my abilities to introduce sweeping changes into my lifestyle.

In a quote attributed to productivity and management guru, Peter Drucker, he has said that “people often overestimate what they can accomplish in one year, but they greatly underestimate what they could accomplish in five years.” I have found this to be pretty true in my own life: days blend into weeks, that blend into months, and before you know it, we’re looking back on a year that had lots of “I wish” moments. However, when I look back over a longer period of time, I often see how I have grown or matured in areas of life.

Many times, I have made the resolve in a new year to read my Bible more: I register for a Bible-in-a-year plan on YouVersion, and by the time I hit Leviticus (often during cold February), my motivation begins to wane, and the plan stalls out.

Or I’ll commit to praying more; setting my alarm 30 minutes earlier so I can pray uninterrupted each day, only to be distracted by my phone, not having enough sleep the night before, or sleeping through the alarm.

Things like this can feel like I am a failure at discipleship after Jesus. Perhaps you can relate?

However, another saying I’ve heard is that “Large doors swing on small hinges.” That is, significant change can take place in our lives through a series of small, sustainable, yet meaningful actions and behaviours.

What if we could collectively as a church walk together in such changes and tweaks; what might our lives and discipleship look like a year from now? What might our church look like a year from now? What significant change might take place in our hearts and congregation through the small, yet intentional and sustainable adjustments to our lives?

This January and February, we are going to be diving into a sermon series that will attempt to help us focus on just that: identifying some of the small, yet significant behaviours and actions that will move us forward as a body of believers following after Jesus.

Of course, it won’t just be a sermon series - something that has very little power to actually change things in our lives (just ask James who knew that information alone doesn’t animate your faith):

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” James 1:22-24).

It will be something actionable and achievable for us.

One element I want to tease is the addition of a curated RockPointe Bible reading plan.

So often, we want to read more Scripture, but we either don’t know where to start, or we start at the beginning and like my Bible-in-a-year plan, get bogged down in Leviticus or Numbers. Beginning this week, we are offering a 5-day reading plan that will be curated by our pastors and will intentionally tie into that week’s sermon. That means that as you follow along each day, you will be reading Scripture that will be preparing your heart for the message that week.

We will be leveraging technology to help you in this and having our reading publicized in the YouVersion Bible app (available on the App Store or the Google Play Store), as well as sent out in our weekly newsletter.

You can get a jump on next week's reading here, or jot down the references to use in your ‘analog’ bible.

Beginning January 6, 2025

• Monday - Colossians 3:12-17

• Tuesday - 1 John 4:7-21

• Wednesday - Psalm 95:1-11

• Thursday - Hebrews 10:19-25

• Friday - Acts 2:1-47

I am so excited to be starting this journey into 2025 with you all! May the Holy Spirit continue to lead us into Christ’s likeness this year!