It's easy to get buried in the burden of work required of any committed church communicator. Your world can easily narrow to a computer screen and a list of seemingly endless projects that all need to be done now. When you feel overwhelmed, it's also easy to forget that in many ways the immensity of your challenges is a correct representation of the eternal importance and value of your work. I wrote the following devotion to remind you of it: 

You are the Great Ones and far more than important than you may realize

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. (Dan. 12:3)

Often when I ask someone who has come to one of my church communication seminars what they do in the church, they often respond by saying something like: "Oh, I'm just the church secretary" or "Oh, I just help work on the church newsletter" and similar self-deprecating statements.

My heart is broken when I hear that because the person who says it (and you may have thought similar things about yourself) has no idea of their true worth. Let me explain what I mean by sharing a story from a scene in C. S. Lewis' book, The Great Divorce. In this scene the main character is being escorted around heaven. He sees a woman coming toward him magnificently clothed and attended to by a great procession. The book goes on:

"Is it?...is it?" I whispered to my guide.

"Not at all," said he, "It's someone ye'll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green."

"She seems to be . . . well, a person of particular importance?"

"Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things." [Read more...]