Today we mark the 3rd Sunday in our Season of Generosity. During this season, we explore the path and practice of generosity and consider the call to extravagant generosity. Together, we’ll wrestle with how our lives as disciples of Jesus are shaped and transformed through this practice and how we might live this practice out. Each week, we will celebrate stories of generosity – both God’s and one another’s. This week we lift up the sharing of Ben Wong.
I’m a goal-oriented guy. I love setting goals, and then trying to reach them. I need to see positive change in my surroundings, and have a hard time accepting the status quo. I believe things can be improved, and I work really hard to move the needle. It’s really difficult for me to sit around and let time pass without doing something. I’m not content to just exist - I have to live with purpose.
Naturally, I tend to hang out with people who are also interested in making a change. Hopefully they share the same purpose as me. At my company, my coworkers are all working towards the same goal. Similarly, at CCUMC, I’m hoping that we’re also united in purpose, and I think the UMC is very clear on what that purpose is - making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
As you can probably imagine, I get really frustrated when goals aren’t met, or change doesn’t happen. At my company, if the product I’m working on has no chance to succeed, I would have no energy or enthusiasm to go to work. I would feel like quitting. But sometimes companies do that - they’re content to simply keep themselves alive. Can you imagine that - a company that had no impact on the world, and was content to simply maintain the status quo? (see the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:13-30)
My hope for the coming year is that CCUMC would make disciples - that we would make good on that unifying goal set forth by the UMC. I hope that we haven’t placed anything else as higher priority, and that we sacrifice everything to achieve that goal. So, is CCUMC having any success with this? How are we delivering on this goal? How are you delivering on this goal? As with many things in life, it all begins with each one of us individually - with our Prayers, Presence, Gifts, Service, and Witness. If you build yourself up as a disciple, then you are helping to reach the goal. Beyond that, are you helping others to do the same? That is what disciple-making is all about.
Finally, I have to say that not only am I goal-oriented, I’m also results-oriented. If something isn’t working, we have to change our strategy. If we aren’t having much success making disciples, then I hope we would change how we go about trying to make them. My high school tennis coach would always tell us “you always change a losing game plan.” Are we willing to take a hard look at the things that aren’t making disciples, and either sacrifice them, or alter them until they do produce? I hope we are willing to do that in the coming year. And I hope that you take your own discipleship, and the discipling of others, to heart.