There are many things that cause us to lose our momentum. Discouragement, failure, lack of focus, no ambition and unwillingness to take risks are some of the factors that can cause resistance to our forward movement (momentum). The best way to counter the loss of momentum is to understand the momentum principles in their most basic form. Principles that I have taken and over-simplified for our understanding and application.
(1) Realize momentum takes time and patience. Jesus said God's Kingdom grows in influence like yeast does in bread dough. Bread rises slowly, but it does rise! Reversing negative momentum or getting positive momentum going from a dead stop, takes time and patience. Just keep moving forward.
(2) Just do something--almost anything. Doing nothing won't change anything; in fact, it usually makes things worse. In Jesus' story of the three men given talents, the criticism of the man with one talent was that he did nothing. We can begin by just doing a little something, being obedient to God in little ways. After all, most of life is made up of small things.
(3) Build on success. Focus on recent forward progress. Many of the psalms in our Bible were written by people in trouble. They often used psalms to review the ways God had helped them in the past. This gave them the confidence to move forward and seize the future, and their psalms usually end on that confident note.
(4) Remember the power of momentum. It's easier to be positive toward your spouse or friend when you've recently had a positive experience together. In the book of Acts we find that the church was given the increase, not because of their worship style, small group discipleship meetings or evangelism tactics, but because they went about ministering daily to the needs of people. The sooner you follow one positive step with another, the easier it becomes to create continued positive experiences. Continued positive experiences increases the chances of sustained forward movement.
As we embark on the Journey of 180, there will be many voices seeking to give direction to a preferred destination. Our task is not to listen to any one voice but to corporately discern the destination that God has for us as a convention. As the forward movement gains speed, let us not be delayed, deterred or derailed by the fleeting attractions along the way.
It takes a great deal of energy to get a train moving 70 miles per hour down the track, but once it gets going it's nearly unstoppable. That's the power of momentum. Understanding these simple basic principles and putting them to use can help each one of us move forward in life and as a body of believers.
