A Different Kind of Sermon

I listened to last Sunday's sermon from the sofa in my parents' living room.  This proved a bit hazardous, since I was verrrry comfortable, and found myself surfacing several times after having dozed off.  My dad, in the recliner opposite me, was lying nearly flat, with his broken leg resting on stacked pillows, in an effort to get the newly-developed swelling in that leg to subside.  He was too comfortable too, and deeply regretted afterward what he missed.

I'm not sure of the exact title, but the sermon was on business ownership, productivity, and creativity as a way of fulfilling our calling to bear God's image.  The audience was encouraged to consider being in business as something worthy to aspire to in a life of Christian service--a commendable alternative or counterpart to more directly-identifiable service-oriented vocations.  I  had never heard a sermon like that, and have given less thought to the topic than I might have, given the fact that I have one son who is an employee with a business degree and another who is a business owner without a business degree and with several employees.  A third son has spent most of his working years as the single employee in a multi-enterprise business, one of them being farming.  My husband has been an employee in large businesses during nearly all of our married life--with a few short stints employed in small businesses.

On Sunday evening I had a conversation about the sermon with my favorite young business owner.  I guessed correctly that the sermon was an encouragement to him, and we talked about some of the truths we heard and appreciated.  We also talked about some related principles which were not part of the sermon--presumably because there is simply never enough time to say all that might be said.  Also, we all know how wearisome it is to listen to endless caveats which dilute the main points so thoroughly that we almost lose track of them.  Focused speaking demands that we omit some of what might be said.

One of the things my conversation companion pointed out is that some things that often work very well for a business owner work far less well when transferred to community and church efforts, particularly with regard to decision-making and productivity.  I had not thought of that, but the longer I turned it over in my mind, the more I agreed.

Another thing that came up in the conversation is a tidbit of trivia I didn't know:  Center church is the second largest church in the Beachy constituency, second only to Weavertown of Lancaster County, PA.  I heard in the conversation that we ought to be thinking and talking now about what kind of community we want to be, given the reality of our current size--like all those other big communities that we "love to hate?"--or something different, more like what we have been in the past.  I gathered that the primary concern was the possibility of racing headlong after symbols of the status quo, with its presumed paucity of vision and willingness to sacrifice.

Hmmmm.  I didn't say it, but I thought of something I wrote about recently in a "Past-Tense Amish" post.  What are values to be recovered in this department from our Amish background?

I thought also of something LeRoy talks about sometimes--how that often consolidation is not our friend, and how the "inefficient" one-room schools of the past offered a high-quality education in spite of their supposed limitations.  I responded to him by saying that I thought that consolidation is almost always like many other things we do in education.  It has a lot more to do with what is "efficient" or convenient for adults than what is good for children.

The next morning Hiromi clarified something for me when he said that he thinks people often make the mistake of measuring worth by what is produced or controlled, when a better standard is the measure of stewardship--how well one handles what God has entrusted to a person.  The term stewardship has, I believe, for a very long time been uppermost in my thinking about bearing God's image in a vocation.  I remember that when I was teaching in Ohio, the church where I attended asked Dad to come and talk there for a week on the subject of stewardship.  I don't remember much of what he said, but I'm sure I listened, and what I learned then and at other times has soaked deeply into my thinking.  This idea is, of course, not in conflict with what we heard in the sermon, but it represents a slightly different emphasis.

Simply stated, the concept of stewardship recognizes that we are responsible for protecting and making the best use of what God has given us--offering it back to God, to whom it belonged originally, and for whose glory it exists.  This could include abilities, resources, passions, opportunities, training, spiritual gifts, location in time and space, and circumstances beyond our control, etc.  I'm not sure why, but when I told Hiromi how much I liked what he had told me, he seemed blank--as though he didn't remember saying that.  So where did that come from?

I feel some caution about an emphasis on any material thing as something to be pursued, acquired, and highly valued.  Where does that fit in laying up treasures where moth and rust don't corrupt?    Maybe that was covered one of those times just before I roused on that comfortable sofa.

I wonder if desiring things and desiring control aren't already part of our natural bent, and the qualities that must be nurtured in order to fit in with sacrificial service--those things that have historically been more highly valued in our church community than business acumen--are, in fact, worthy of constant encouragement and affirmation.  Yet I certainly agree that a person who places himself at God's disposal and then finds that God places him in a business as owner and employer--that person need not apologize.  He may, in fact, rejoice in God's direction and provision, just as the missionary or teacher or nurse might do.

"Did he talk about providing jobs for others as a benefit of business ownership?" Dad wondered, inquiring about some of the sermon content he missed.  I said I thought he had, but I couldn't remember how the minister said it.

In a later post I wish to dig a little deeper to explore the shape of church/community identity, particularly with respect to group efforts.  I also have an ongoing interest in family-friendly business models, and have written about this before.  Maybe that's worth re-visiting too.

As soon as it's posted, the sermon should be available at centeramishmennonite.org.