A new year is a good time to look back and forward. You can look back at what you have done in the past year and look ahead to the coming year. In the latter case, it is not the concrete plans that are most important, but what you want to prioritize.

Priorities are not about what you do, but about what you find important; not about whether you do things well, but whether you do the right things. It is useful to reflect on this regularly. Especially in a hectic time, our lives are all too quickly filled with things that we have always done, that others ask of us or that come our way because of current events, but often these are not the things that are really important. Because we can only spend our time once, we will have to set priorities.

A well-known division in literature on time management is the division into things that are urgent and non-urgent and important and non-important. What is urgent is in a hurry and demands your attention immediately. What is important is determined by the content and by your values. A risk is that your time is mainly filled with things that are urgent. If they are also important, that is fine; but not everything that seems urgent is also really important. The danger is that there is too little room for reflection, formulation and thinking things through. That is not urgent (there is usually no deadline), but it is important. That is why it must indeed be a priority, personally and as a church.

Congregation⤒🔗

It would be good for the church council to consider at the beginning of a year or a season what the church has as a priority. What developments do we see in the church, and what things does this church need in this time and environment? What spiritual fruit do we see? A discussion about this should not be about a sociological analysis, but about a spiritual sounding, based on the Scriptures and before the face of God. If this shows that involvement in preaching or the formation of young parents requires attention, this should also be given priority on the agenda or in the time spent by office bearers or others. The alternative is that you only continue to do what you have always done and only make policy in the event of new developments when problems arise, instead of acting in advance in a formative or preventive manner.

Setting priorities can create a certain tension. A member of the church who approaches the church council with an honest question deserves a careful answer. A complicated pastoral situation can take up a lot of time. But surely it cannot be good that we spend hours in meetings about trivialities and never get around to the question of what the church needs spiritually? An honest answer can sometimes also be that a subject is not a priority now.

Church Association/Federation←⤒🔗

As a church association, we will also have to face the question of our priorities. This is necessary from a practical point of view: What can we continue to do and what can we not continue to do with a declining membership, which is also less involved in the national church? However, this reflection is also necessary in principle. It would be good if a general synod were not only concerned with the reports of all kinds of deputies and committees (which happens) but also reflected on the question of what the churches need in our time and culture, what is needed in the world around us, and how we pass on the gospel to a new generation. And then we will have to invest our time and energy primarily in what is really important and do other things briefly or not at all anymore.

A lot of attention within the CGK (Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken) is currently paid to homosexuality and women and office. Most of those involved will have very convincing and good motives for their views. I also have an opinion on a number of points. It is indeed about something: understanding the Scriptures, sometimes also the authority of Scripture, the relationship between church and culture, pastoral concern. That is why it is understandable that the churches have spoken out about this, and we will have to continue to discuss it; simply letting each other go or letting go is not a solution.

Yet things go wrong when all our church time and energy is spent on these things. That is not a relativization of the questions at stake, but a prioritization. The first letter to the Corinthians plays a role in discussions about both homosexuality and women and office. All kinds of problems played a role in Corinth, which Paul addresses in his letter. But he first writes extensively about the core of what the church and preaching should be about: Jesus Christ and him crucified. He does not even want to know anything else than that. Concrete issues are addressed later and always in the light of the crucified Christ. And the first problem that Paul addresses is not a concrete issue, but the mutual relationships and the formation of groups in the church: “Is Christ divided?” Doesn’t that question fill our hands in the Christian Reformed Churches (CGK)? Can you be Reformed and belong to Christ if you shrug your shoulders at the trouble of a brother with your position, and if you cannot find each other in the preaching of the crucified and risen one? Do we still really listen to the Scriptures and to each other, or are our positions already fixed?

Of course, we must take the New Testament passages on ethics very seriously, even where they clash with our intuitions or with the spirit of the times—but then about the whole of ethics; not only a part of the Biblical discourse on sexuality or office, but also on marital fidelity, greed and gossip. If all attention is focused on a few subjects, this can easily lead to a narrowing of Biblical discourse, with neglect of other subjects that are also of great importance. Then there is a risk of infidelity to the gospel (the core) and to Scripture (the breadth).

Our agenda should be determined by what, from the Scriptures, has priority for the church in our time. Necessary reflection may also have a time and place. That is difficult in a climate in which the time horizon of politicians and the media is getting shorter and shorter. Protesting citizens (“yellow vests”) ask for a quick and clear solution. That is a breeding ground for populism, in which nuance and the long-term vision are the victims. The tendency to quick and clear, unqualified solutions also threatens us as churches, but the church is the church of the ages, the community of God that spans the centuries. He has the time and therefore we may also take the time. And if we live from God’s patience and in the time of his longsuffering, we can also have a lot of patience with each other.

Child←⤒🔗

This issue of De Wekker is about children and faith. What do our children get when they see our lives? Children do not need a slick policy plan, but parents who are there for them, who show them that the service of the Lord is a service of love, who talk to them about him, and pray with them and for them. If your career or your work in the church leads you to be a parent no longer having time to talk to your children about the Lord and to read the Bible and pray, something is wrong.

Setting the right priorities also means not thinking too grand. My children will probably not worry about my number of meetings, pastoral visits or publications later on. Hopefully they have seen something of love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for them. If anything should have priority, that is it.