The multiplication of goodness

Dear friends,

Happy New Year!   That is, if I haven’t wished you that already.  I hope you got everything done on your list before 2015 ended, including your New Year’s resolutions.  Like many of us you may have been trying to get your charitable giving out of the way before the ball dropped.  That is always a big question: which organization to give to.   Of all the envelopes for donation request we all get in the mail, how do we decide which organizations to support?  It seems it is impossible not to feel guilty. You are going to leave out somebody.  And more requests will come in.  And then there are those who send you pennies and nickels which wind up in the Salvation Army bucket at the end of the year.  For me the answer to this question changes almost every year.  Some years I thought immediate hunger relief was best, next I thought donating  goats that can provide offspring would be best.  Other years I thought that medicine in war and disaster zones would be the most useful. But then you think of the kids in the third world with a cleft palate.  Most of them will never live up to their potential and many of them shunned without surgery.   A couple of operations would be a game changer.  In poor countries curable blindness reduces you to begging for a lifetime.  And what about the cure to cancer?   At the heart of the question is “how do we most multiply goodness with our humble donations?”

A congegration stays alive and vibrant when the people believe that goodness is multiplied through the life of the church.  People feel cared for, they feel meaning, they feel moved and touched or nurtured (and in Parkview’s case “nourished” also).  Those who feel and believe that in turn pass on that goodness to others, whether consciously or not.  In our developing mission statement members of this congregation express a longing for multiplying goodness into the community even beyond the work we are doing now.   People want to plug into the community grid and create a greater impact.  That can be hard for a small church with a limited labor pool.  But then we are followers of the man Jesus Who in a period of three years in some dusty outpost two millennia ago made such an impact that His words and actions continue to reverberate around the globe and seep into the lives of billions of people.

Part of our philosophy with our residency program is to bring in new, idealistic graduates who might assist us in the multiplication of goodness within and beyond the church.  We are not looking to control but more to empower them.  I saw an English soccer match a week or so ago on television between Manchester  City and Leicester City.  The first team has a payroll of 409 million people supposedly, the second a payroll of 17 million. They are at the same spot in the table and they tied the game.  Sometimes it just takes the right players in the right attitude to change the game and make it flow. Leicester City came out of a lower division last year and now they’re near the top.  It’s all about how the defensive players, the mid-field players and the striker connect with each other and create the space to place the ball in.  Connection and cooperation lead to open space!  Please pray for your church and its leaders, its mission and its vision. May there be openness and flow and connection.  Without God’s grace we would have locked the doors a long time ago. Instead we are still vibrant and busy trying to multiply goodness. Thanks be to God! You see you in church. Aart

Thank you for your cards.  Again this year we didn’t send any. Sorry!