The Pastor’s Perspective
By the Rev. Daniel W. Bellavia
January 2008

By the time you receive this newsletter, it will be 2008: a new year filled with endless possibilities and opportunities. We often talk about possibilities as we enter a new year. This is done in the same glib fashion that we offer resolutions regarding lifestyle choices or personal behaviors. These possibilities and resolutions are rarely recognized as transformative moments, but they should be. Our resolutions and our possibility thinking at this time of year is all about transformation; whether it is in losing weight or gaining friends.

The Church is a place of transformation. This is what the people of God are all about, transformed lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. The story of the Church of Jesus Christ bears witness to God’s transforming power at work among humanity. Jesus changes Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul, and through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit we can be transformed as well. But transformation does not just occur by divine fiat. If it did, would Jesus have spent months in prayer and preparation? If it happened that easily, would Paul have trained in the desert under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit? If transformation happened without struggle and pain, would Peter have ever risen from the depths of his denial?

It is true that it is only through God’s Spirit that we can be successful, but it is also true that God calls us to pick up our cross and follow. God expects us to devote ourselves to the preparatory work that always comes before success. Good soldiers train, good students study, and good Christians pray and prepare. Our transformation and our success is dependant on our preparation.

Our possibilities will be expanded or limited only by the extent of our preparation. That one’s possibility is tied to one’s preparation is a well-known fact of life. It must simply be acknowledged that (in a free society) every man, woman, and organization receive similar opportunities, but only those who are prepared for them can reap the rewards that those opportunities offer.

Think about it this way. Most High Schools offer classes in foreign languages, in fact most curricula require these classes. How many people HAD to take a Spanish class in school? Now how many people actually learned Spanish? Think of the opportunities available for a bilingual man or woman in our current world. Think of the ministry possibilities available to someone who could speak English and Spanish with equal fluency. Once someone has learned a new language they are transformed and can now communicate with someone who was a stranger before the transformation.

Everything in our lives prepares us for what is to come. The better we prepare, the more we learn, the more we can take advantage of the opportunities that come our way. The kid who learns how to speak Spanish has greater opportunities than the person who didn’t. We each try to teach our kids this lesson, especially when they ask us why they have to learn math or history, science or music, but it is a lesson that we have a particularly difficult time learning for ourselves.

I think the real reason behind this is that we have deluded ourselves into believing that success is a product of luck (or for the religious, blessing) instead of hard work and preparation. This has caused many of us (even in the wisdom of adulthood) to ignore the value of hard work, education and training. So instead of spending our time in preparation for opportunity we become engrossed in lottery-style “luck-seeking” and finally embittered by the success of others. This is clearly not the way that Jesus called us to follow.

Jesus spent three years teaching, training, and sending his disciples into the world to accomplish the work of the Father. Jesus’ followers healed the sick, cast out demons, and generally accomplished things far above their station. And this was all before Pentecost. Have you ever asked yourself how this rag-tag group of men could do so much? I have, and I have come to one conclusion. They were asked to follow and go and they responded. They worked daily and they grew in faith and spirit. They apprenticed at the feet of the Savior and they became powerful in the Spirit. It is really as simple as that. If God is truly calling us then God will also give us a way to answer that call.

Jesus prepared His disciples for their work, even as He wants to train us for ours. Interestingly enough, their preparation was not a formal education at a university. Nor did they receive a degree or even a certificate. They spent little time in the classroom but learned by doing. This is something that the Church should pay attention to. Many Christians believe that they must know it all before they can do ministry. This has more similarity to the Gnostic heresies of the early church than it does to the method that Jesus taught and preached. You don’t need special wisdom or knowledge (the core of the Gnostic heresy) to share the gospel and make a difference in the world. Jesus sent His followers out before they even knew who He was. They were already doing God’s work before they knew that they had encountered God in Jesus.

Jesus sent them and then gathered them for training and correction. They prepared. They prayed. They worked hard and then they sat down and learned the Jesus way of doing things. They learned from their mistakes (and they made plenty). They learned from each others experiences. And they shared their burdens with each other through the good times and the bad times. They comforted and protected each other. They were a team and a family.

Jesus is calling the Church to follow, pray, prepare, work and learn. He calls us together as a Church to do this, so that we might provide correction and protection when needed, but most importantly so that we can have the safety of our Church family in which to err. We will all fail before we succeed. But within the healthy Godly Church, we will be able to learn from our mistakes without the injury of rejection and scorn.

This is something that we must be bold enough to do in 2008. Many churches are asking whether this will be a year for preparation or for success. Churches that follow the Jesus principle will answer that we will do both. We will prepare ourselves by actively doing the work of God in Jesus Christ. We will learn by doing and we will grow through our work. We will train the mind, body and spirit as we reach out and serve, not the world, nor the Church, but Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Only by serving Jesus will we show our love to the world and grow our Church in spiritual depth and in numerical growth.

Let us seek to serve the Lord in powerful ways in 2008.
Rev. Daniel W. Bellavia