A Word from Pastor Lisa: Getting into Gear

The Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

– 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, NRSV

For the past year, I’ve been having trouble with my bicycle. Every time I coast down a hill or come to a complete stop, the chain falls out of gear. When I go to pedal again, nothing happens. I pedal into the air and don’t move at all. I have to shift the gears around in order to engage the bike again. Not only is this frustrating, but it’s also quite dangerous. I’ve had my bike into the shop twice, and I hope with a new freewheel, I’ll be ready to ride again this summer.

This pandemic year has caused a lot of us to fall out of gear with our discipleship journey. It’s been difficult to stay connected to each other, to our church, and to our faith practices. As we emerge from the pandemic, we’re gracefully inviting everyone to engage with spiritual disciplines that help us grow. In worship we’ve been exploring the concept of a discipleship pathway, a tool that can help us track our spiritual growth.

The apostle Paul talks about spiritual growth using the metaphor of planting and watering, which is also appropriate this time of year as we get our gardens going. In the early church in Corinth, Paul preached the good news of Jesus to them and planted the seeds of faith. Another apostle named Apollos followed Paul and continued to water those gospel seeds in the people. But Paul makes it clear that neither Apollos nor he are the significant players. They had important roles, to be sure, but it is God who gives the growth.

As we reflect on growing in our faith, I want to come back to the bicycle gears because I believe that there are three gears working behind the scenes to help us climb the discipleship pathway – God, our church, and our choice, which all work together.

First, God has given us grace in abundance. You’ve heard me talk before about Methodist founder John Wesley’s understanding of the way of grace. He believed prevenient grace was like the front porch of the house of faith. It is a grace that is in our lives before we’re even aware that beckons us into relationship with Jesus. Justifying grace is the doorway that announces us forgiven, saved, and restored from sin and brokenness into right relationship with God. Sanctifying grace is the interior of the house were we continue to grow in holy living, so that we might experience Christian perfection, being perfect in our love for God and our neighbor.

The second gear is our church and our family, who play critical roles in our spiritual growth. The church’s role is to nurture, encourage, and challenge us through small groups, corporate worship, financial generosity, and service based on our gifts. Our family and close friends are a primary influence on our development, as we likewise are upon theirs. We want to be equipping families to nurture faith in younger generations at home.

Finally, we have a personal role to play with the spiritual practices that are part of our daily lives. My seminary ethics professor always used to say that Christians don’t have values. Used cars have values. Instead, Christians have practices that shape who we are. These disciplines include prayer, Scripture reading, financial generosity, witnessing, small-group community, corporate worship, and gifts-based service. Growth in these areas is sometimes sporadic and not linear. There are times of regression, or times we’re stronger in one area than another. Jesus will meet us wherever we are, but we won’t get to stay there, says Jim Harnish. The important thing is to keep following Jesus down the path.

I’m excited to be getting into gear again with our faith journey, and I hope you’ll reflect with me on the roles that God, the church, and your own practices play in our growth together.