Rick Allnutt, the pastor of Faith Evangelical Covenant Church, where I attend, preached Sunday on Colossians 1:15-20. While the message focused on the supremacy of Christ in our lives, I was struck by this passage on a somewhat different level.

Verses 17 and 18 particularly stood out because I find them to be great encouragement to church leaders during the hectic schedule of the holidays. Christmas pageants, outreach events, soup kitchen service days, parties, and so on loom during the next 3 1/2 weeks. So do the inevitable conflicts, mishaps, and other offenses great and small that occur whenever a team must lead and coordinate so many things at once.

No doubt there will be a moment or two when it feels as though everything is coming apart. When those times come, and they most likely will, remind yourself that Christ reigns supreme in every place:

"(Christ) is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the ...