“SUCCESSFUL Experiences dissolve Fear”

Bring peace to situations as you

• Be a GREAT Parent, Husband, Wife, Friend
• Be nice to everyone
• Walk with wisdom
• Keep things organized
• Treat others with respect
• Give appreciation to others
• Smile every day to every one

• Always focus on others
• Understand truth carefully
• Be loyal to your friends
• Keep everybody smiling
• Make people feel safe
• Be such a positive person
• Do your work with excellence

• Be such a physically fit person
• Keep everyone else comfortable
• Be a faithful friend, husband, father co-worker
• Be a person who keeps his word
• Be such a success (as defined by God) in your job
• Care about other people so much
• Be Enthusiastic about other people

• Provide for your family

No nonprofit would ever send out a donor letter stating that they are running a horrible deficit

Why do people give?

1. People give because they want to make the world a better place to live.
2. People give because they want to be a part of something that changes lives.
   

J. Cliff Christopher observed that;

The church is the only nonprofit I know of that seems to believe that the more you cry that you are sinking, the more people will give to you. The exact opposite is true. No nonprofit I know of would ever send out a donor letter stating that they are running a horrible deficit and they just want the donors to help balance the budget. They know that such a letter actually discourages giving rather than motivates it. A nonprofit board will deal with budget matters in a board meeting but never publicize such to its donor base. The church goes out of its way to do just that.

In the nonprofit world, two institutions continue to outperform most of the others. The Salvation Army continues to get more donations each year than any social service agency or group. Harvard University leads all universities in endowment-giving year after year. Do they send out a message that they are dying on the vine and must have one more contribution to stay afloat? No, they say, “We took your money last year and we did great things with it. If you will give us more, we will do more great things.” And people give and give to them. People want results and these institutions give positive results!

Historically, churches feel the effects of a financial recession about a year after the recession’s beginning. I’m sure that there are many lessons to be learned about stewardship in this worst of times, best of times.

Social Holiness

Jesus inherited from his Hebrew ancestors a strong sense of God’s solidarity with the poor and a strong commitment to both mercy and justice for those lacking in material goods and social position.

This theme is sounded by the prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, among others, and echoed in the Psalms and other ancient Jewish literature.  Proverbs 31 offers a stirring summary:

“Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9)

One in every 16 verses in scripture refers to the poor.  And one in every ten in the gospels is about the poor and impoverished.

The Hebrew scriptures are clear, the prophets are clear, Jesus is clear – the distress of every single human being is a priority for the living God.  If we fail to comprehend this, we fail in all.  If we fail to respond, we fail in all.  If we fail to place the last, the least, the forgotten, the neglected, the hungry, the impoverished at the center of our attention, we fail in all.

And who are these others – the people who are a priority for the living God?

• They are our neighbors nearby and far away.
• They are the 30,000 children under the age of five who die each day as a result of poverty, far removed from the scrutiny and conscience of the world, invisible in death.
• They are the 72 million children of primary age who are not in school due to poverty, when the expenditure of less than one percent of what is spent annually on weapons of war would put all children worldwide in school.
• They are the 1.1 billion people who have no access to clean water and 2.6 billion people who lack basic sanitation.
• They are the 37 million United States citizens who live in poverty.
• They are the millions of U.S. citizens who are unemployed and under-employed, a number that exploded during the recent recession.
• They are the one million children who go hungry in America each year.
• They are the 80% of humanity who live on less than $10 per day and the one billion who live on one dollar ($1.00) per day.
• They are the people we see every day  who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick or imprisoned.
• They are our neighbors nearby and far away.

Jesus didn’t own a house.  He was marginalized, suffered and died.  But through his extravagant, sacrificial love, he conquered all evil powers of this world, including the evil power of poverty.  Jesus built the first bridge out of poverty with only three nails and two pieces of wood shaped into an old rugged cross.

Great Commission

Jesus’ Great Commandment to love God and neighbor is the foundation and passion for our mission and vision.  Within our Wesleyan tradition, we practice this great commandment through the practical and formational disciplines of three simple rules – do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.

Jesus gave us a very specific mission in the Great Commission. Mathew records it this way;

¹⁶Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matt. 28:16-20).

“Faith by itself, it if has no works, is dead.”  (James 2:17)  Similarly, love without action is merely a sentiment.  “Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”  (I John 3:18).

Vision is our discerned picture of God’s preferred future for us as we fulfill the mission of discipleship in our specific geographical, cultural and demographic context.