Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
2 Timothy 3
15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you:
2 proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.
3 For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires,
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
5 As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
Booksellers know their customers (yesterday’s church bazaar, for example) They hold books, they know the tables (“I need contemporary Canadian fiction!”) and they try (try!) to sell even the poorest excuse of the printed word.
The same is repeated in each area of specialty…The same customer crying out for cont. Can. Fiction in one room is an expert of costume jewelry in another room.
The success of the bazaar illustrates the three things required to be successful in marketing: know your customer, know your product, and know how to persuade them (to buy the thing they don’t know they need).
These three things are examined at length in The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)
According to Gladwell, a runaway success (he use the word epidemic) requires the work of three types of people: Connectors, Mavens, and Salespeople. Sometimes a person will embody two of these types…or in a very rare individual, all three.
(in case you are wondering how this will become a sermon, I will argue that the Apostle Paul was one of the very rare individuals to embody all three)
Connectors are people to initiate and maintain relationships well beyond the norm. You know them…they keep up with the kids they knew in public school, or a person they met at a party year ago…they are the people who seem to know everybody.
Stanley Milgram did an experiment in the 1960’s that birthed the idea of “six degrees of separation.” He took 160 people in Omaha, Nebraska and told them that there goal was to forward a packet to a certain stockbroker in Boston (whom they did not know). They were told to move it in the right direction, to a friend or family member, in the hope that someone they knew closer to Boston would be able to get the package to it’s goal. The question was how many steps would it take to get between strangers. The conventional wisdom was dozens or more (half way across a country of 250 million people. He found, however, that the average was between five and six (“six degrees of separation”)
The truly surprising part of the experiment came when Milgram began to analyze the lists…fully half of the packets passed through the hands of the same three individuals. Because their names kept appearing, and because they were tied into so many social relationships, they were labeled “connectors.”
The second type of unique individual Gladwell calls a Maven. Mavens collect product information. They know how to buy things. They know where to get the best deals, and they will tell you the questions to ask. Each of us may know about a particular type of product, but mavens collect information about many products and services. Mavens do not do this out of self-interest. They aren’t on commission to any company…they are simply “teachers” with a special interest in the marketplace. Mavens even have their own magazine, called Consumer Reports.
We have a maven (who shall remain nameless) in our midst. Our maven knows a great deal about computers…but he also understands consumer electronics, cameras, tools, household appliances, home renovation (have a left out any Bill?)
As I said, mavens do not do this for personal gain, simply for the pleasure of knowing that you got the item you need at a good price.
The third type of individual required for a runaway success is a salesperson. This is likely the easiest to understand. Gifted salespeople are not the pushy stereotypical salespeople that may pop into our mind first, but rather the type of person who develops a rapport with us, gains our trust, and makes sure that we lave the showroom with whatever is for sale. The real estate broker I use seems like a friend (not that she is), but we have a good rapport and I trust her to help me. At the end of the day, however, she is still a salesperson, selling a house.
St. Paul is all three: connector, maven and salesperson (refresher: Paul became a follower of Jesus several years after Jesus death and Resurrection. He wrote nearly a third of the NT in the form of letters to churches he founded. He is regarded as the individual that took Christianity from a collection of believers to a church).
Paul the connector:
Do your best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm…you must beware of him. Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus remained in Corinth; Trophimus I left ill in Miletus. Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers and sisters. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
Paul didn’t just start churches, he began and maintained relationships. He kept track of the faith journey of hundreds or people. He was aware of who knew who, and the quality of their relationship. He remembered the people who borrowed books from him (I skill I need).
The birth of the church was about the quality of the relationships between believers and the work of some extraordinary connectors…and in particular Paul…the greatest connector or all.
Paul the Maven. His area of expertise was not the marketplace (that we are aware of…although he no doubt was an expert on travel and accommodation). Paul was a maven in religious and spiritual matters.
Paul: From childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
Paul was a knowledgeable teacher in the areas of scripture, Jewish history and theology, world history, other religions, the teachings of Jesus, psychology, sociology and many others. He knew a lot about sailing (and shipwrecks).
Only an expert on these fields could take the story of a fledgling movement and turn it into a largely coherent body with the beginning of a common theology (understanding of God) and a common purpose, that is, to proclaim the saving significance of Jesus Christ.
Paul the salesperson:
I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
Paul isn’t simply training evangelists, he is promoting a way of life. He doesn’t tell his people what to do, rather, he convinces them that they already have the gifts and the spirit to undertake this ministry.
Evangelism is a tough sell…he is asking his people to take risks, to step outside of themselves and do the work of convincing, admonishing, encouraging…and in doing so, he is also convincing, admonishing and encouraging. It is a remarkable approach. He is teaching by example, as he always did.
So, where are we in all of this. The church is failing (not this church, but the church in our society) and we need to respond. We need to safeguard and uphold the church for the sake of the common good and to be faithful disciples of Jesus. It is not an optional thing. The work of building the church belongs to each of us.
Each of us can be a connector or a maven or a salesperson in this effort. How?
Connectors (you know who you are): use your social circle to learn about the worshiping habits of others. If you know two people in a town or on a street, and one of them goes to church, set them up. (“Oh…you live in Markham…do you know so-and-so? He goes to St. Andrew’s”) Remember, we’re building up the church, not just this church.
Mavens (you too know who you are): gather knowledge about the churches and their ministry and their pastor in this community and where ever you go. (“Oh…you’re looking for a church with an mid-week worship service… you should go to Knox in Agincourt…the minister is Linda Petrides, and she’s an excellent adult educator…she also plays a mean clarinet”) See what I mean? I meet someone from Aurora, I tell them about Aurora United Church. I’m a church maven…not because I’m a pastor, but because that’s my skill…I’m not a good connector or a very good salesperson…but I seem to remember details I hear about churches and programmes.
Salespeople (you certainly know who you are): “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage.”
Use your God given skills to promote the church here and where ever you are. Gain people’s trust and remind then that a relationship with Jesus Christ is a transforming and lifegiving. Tell them how the church has changed your life, and about the quality of relationships you find here. Tell them about prayer, and the gift of God presence in their lives. Encourage them to live with compassion and unconditional love, and to live out the Gospels by serving others. Recommend the scriptures, and describe the lives of the saints, including Paul.
Connector, maven, or salesperson, God has gifted all of us for the ministry of Christ’s church. Thanks be to God.
posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 2:52 AM
0 comments
