I got to brag about my church this week. I meet with a group of other clergy guys about three times a year for a couple of days. We call it our "covenant group." There are six of us who all serve different United Methodist Churches in Florida. We've been getting together like this for 13 years. My friendship with these guys will be one of the reasons I'll make it to retirement in the ministry (if I should be so blessed to live that long). They inspire me. They make me laugh. They keep me honest. They hold me accountable to be who God called me to be.
This week they listened to me brag about how 60 people in my church made 6 very significant commitments for living in financial peace for a lifetime. Those commitments are:
- Acknowledge daily that 100% of my resources belong to God.
- Assign every dollar a name – to spend it on paper and on purpose first (in other words live on a budget).
- Eliminate debt and live debt-free.
- Train my children to handle money God's way.
- Save and Invest.
- Give a tithe.
I also got to brag that 59 people worked for the last 90 days to reduce their consumer debt by nearly $281,000 and saved $92,000. And I got to brag that my church has begun 8 new ministries in our community since the end of last year. And 30 couples renewed their wedding vows in worship a few weeks back. For some of those couples that was the first time they had made marriage vows with God at the center.
I am so proud of the hard work that my church has done to get to this point!
But it also occurred to me that there are several people in my church who probably wondered how any of these recent sermons had anything to do with them. After all, we've got several single people at Spring of Life and we've got a few folks who had been living these 6 commitments to financial peace for a long time.
I honestly wouldn't have blamed them if they took the last three and a half months off from worship. In our culture we are formed to think about "what we're going to get out of it?" Or "what's in it for me?" And if we aren't going to "get anything out of it" then we consider it a waste of time and do something else.
Why on earth would anyone keep coming to worship and sit through three and a half months of sermons that really didn't directly address their issues? I think because they understand that coming to worship is as much about forming a community as it is about inspiring individuals.
The Apostle Paul spoke a lot about the church as "the Body of Christ." He said that we are all like different part of Jesus' body (fingers, toes, eyes, ears, hands, feet, arms, legs). While the hands are working and growing, the body still needs the rest of its parts to function well.
During these past three and a half months some body parts were working harder than others, but all their hard work was, in a significant way, made possible by those who quietly surrounded them with prayer, support and encouraging presence.
I know that there are times when I come to worship where I don't sing. I just listen to the voices of all those who are around me singing the songs of our faith. They don't realize it but their voices are carrying and lifting me higher than I would have been if I had just been there by myself in private devotion.
So I want to brag like Paul bragged about the people in his church when he said, "I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now." Philippians 1:3-5
Whether you realize it or not – whether the sermons touched you or not – God has been using you to form a community that is stronger today than we were 90 days ago! Thanks for coming to worship.
