As an innovator I am one of those people who begins well but doesn’t always finish well. The pile of unread and half-read books is always higher than the pile of completed books. Some of you are hardwired the other way around and find loose ends annoying and frustrating. You prefer finishing a job properly before moving onto the next project.
Some of us like the fresh start a new year offers while some of us are still tidying the loose ends of 2014. A couple of decades ago Stephen Covey wrote about ‘beginning with the end in mind’ and it remains sage advice for where ever you sit on the above spectrum. Deeper than Covey’s managerial wisdom is the grace we all depend on for our beginnings and endings. The truth of the gospel reminds us that we never truly start or finish any of the things that really matter by sheer will, determination and hard work. The year ahead is bound at one end by the love and generosity of God and the other end by the mercy and forgiveness of God.
I encourage us to begin this new year together bathed in God’s grace: generous with each other as we begin with new people and trying new things; forgiving each other when and where we fail. That is the kind of Church community I want to lead. I hope and pray it is the kind of Church community you want to be a part of.
Geoff Broughton.