THE GREAT 50 DAY CHALLENGE


Grow Your way out



Jay drives a Toyota 4X4 called “the Pig” (because of its fondness for mud) and Geoffrey drives an old Jeep Wrangler known as “The Pelican.” With their love of all terrain vehicles, both Jay and Geoffrey have learned how to drive through rough terrain.

When a person or church begins to face a problem, the default reaction is to go into safety mode. This is when we slow everything down and become really careful. We try to wait the problem out. When you come across a soft spot, where the ground is sandy and hard to get traction, our basic inclination is to take it slow and carefully get through the obstacle. However, if you take it really slow, you get stuck. The only way to get through a soft spot is to floor it. When driving through obstacles, boldness is required.

The same is true when we face soft spots in life. It is important not to take our eyes off the road or our hands off the wheel. The way through church challenges, like hurricanes, pandemics, schisms, and splits, is the same as individual challenges like bankruptcy, divorce, or grief. We must put the pedal to the metal.

We believe that the only way out of challenges is grow your way out. You can’t wait until conditions go back to how they used to be. For instance, if the 1950s ever come back, our denomination will be ready to go—the first out of the gate. When most of the country were professing Christians and church attendance was expected, church life was easy. But things have changed. Yet, people still need to hear about the saving love of Jesus. They still need the church.

You cannot move the church forward by going backwards. The only way forward is to take that first step in front of you. Members who left upset are the hardest to get back and we spend so much energy trying to put things back just like they were. We try so hard to please people who are not coming back. Meanwhile, God is sending new people and we are missing them. God is calling us forward. God is calling us to keep going.

Growth can be numerical but it can also be spiritual. Einstein is credited with saying, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” He apparently was addressing all of the problems caused by nuclear proliferation during the Cold War. To him, this new way of thinking was the only way out of it. We believe that spiritual growth works in the same way. Instead of letting the challenges we face stop us in our tracks, let us use this as an opportunity for growth. We can grow our way through these challenges by finding new strength from our faith.



growth is god's plan



God must really like growth. Just look at the way God created the world! He could have chosen to make the world last Thursday—just as it is. God could have created us a fully grown adults, but that is not how God did it. Instead, the universe is still expanding, life is adapting, and we come into this world as babies. Everything grows. God likes it when things start small like a mustard seed and eventually becomes a mighty tree. Paul said, “ I planted, Apollo watered, but God gives the growth.” Growth comes from God. Growth is part of God’s plan.

Have you ever studied sharks? Sharks must be constantly swimming. They can not just sit there and take a break. Water must rush past their gills to transfer oxygen, so when they stop moving, they start dying. Churches and Christians are like sharks.

Two kinds of churches exist, those that are growing and those that are dying. None are just standing still. Our spiritual life is like that also. We are either growing or dying. There is no stalling out.

The other thing about sharks is that they only grow as large as their tank. Because they are so mesmerizing to watch, sharks are in high demand for aquariums. In the wild, a shark can grow longer than a boat but that same shark, caught as a little guy and placed it in a small aquarium, will not grow. Captivated sharks only grow to the size of the tank, while leaving enough room to swim around.

What is the size of your spiritual tank? Are you swimming in a small pond? Will you need a pool or an ocean to expand in? Let us spread our ways deep in the Bible. Let us learn to pray like Jesus taught us. Let us learn to love like Jesus loved. Then we will need bigger tanks. We need to grow!



Jesus Grew



Have you ever wondered what Jesus was doing during his lost years? Luke is the only gospel that gives us any details. We know that Jesus was circumcised and given a name on the seventh day. Then he and Mary were presented in the temple on the 40th day. At age 12 Jesus had what some might call a rite of passage at the temple, almost like a confirmation or a Bar Mitzvah. But other than that, from day 40 to age twelve, and from age twelve to thirty - zippo, zilch, nada. What in the world was he doing?


If you watch the history channel, you might get the idea that he was very busy. Some scholars think he went to study abroad, maybe to learn from the great library in Alexandria. Some say that he went to England to study sacraments with the Druids. My favorite conjecture is that Jesus went to teach the folks in Glastonbury how to build waddle homes. He was a carpenter’s son after all.


It is easier to believe these wild conjectures than to embrace what we know actually happened. Jesus grew. Luke says it plainly, “he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and humankind.” This is at the heart of the Christmas story. Even God, who never changes, decided to grow.


I think the real reason we don’t like to think of Jesus growing up is that it means we have to grow up also. We want to be left alone, just as we are. But Jesus did not stay young, he grew. Growing is not just for children. We are all like the old Toys-R-Us commercial proclaiming, “I don’t want to grow up.” We are content to stay as we are, believing that we are done growing.


But what about all those immaturities? Yep, you know what we are talking about—fits of anger or the way our feelings get hurt so easily. Teenage angst that we carry with us for years. We don’t want to grow up! We place a brick on our head and drink coffee trying to stunt our growth.


Here in America, we act like salvation is an instantaneous thing. We forget that sanctification is salvation too. Sanctification is the act of being made holy. What is holiness? Love. Until we learn to love unconditionally, until we love purely and truly, until all our actions are motivated by that kind of love, we are not fully grown. John Wesley said that justification was the doorway, but sanctification was the house—sanctification, he said, was religion itself. Learning to love truly and fully is the whole point. Life is a school and the lesson is love. It comes from God and is a gift. A grace.


We all want to stop where we are. I am here. I have arrived. But nope! We all have to grow in to the likeness of Christ. As first John says, “we don’t know what we will be, but when we see him we will be like him.” We are called to grow into something magnificent.


No, I don’t think that Jesus was building waddle cabins in Glastonbury. I know what he was doing. He was growing. And we can too. Let’s use make these great fifty days an opportunity to have Christ grow in us.


Let’s take The Great 50 Day Challenge and grow our churches and our faith!