Seeds of hope help grow effective ministry

Around the family table

24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
—Romans 8: 24-25 (NRSV)

On a recent morning show on network television, I heard a famous American megachurch pastor declare, “I want to plant seeds of hope.” Although I have quarreled with the theologies and styles of many mega-church pastors over the years of my ministry, I found the simple message transmitted on that TV program to be compelling.
I, too, want to “plant seeds of hope.” I desire that my leadership in the McAllen District will support and stimulate effective ministry in our churches so that our pastors and lay leaders will indeed feel hopeful that God is working in their place.
That’s why in our annual church conferences I am giving time to celebrating the ministry activities that the local congregations are doing well. That’s why we have created cooperative resource teams in the district to assist congregations in learning and doing certain ministry actions better. That’s why we now see in this Witness a section called “Amens.”
When Mary and I visited the McAllen District congregations on our first summer in the area, we saw quickly that some people and churches had fallen into a pattern of repeating the bad news rather than celebrating the good news. All of us, even your present district superintendent, can find ourselves in that situation.
Although I have learned that it is absolutely necessary for us to understand the bad news before we can really appreciate the good news, when I, or anyone else, rehearses over and over that bad news, it means that we have become blind to the good that God is seeking to do among us. And God is doing much good all around us through our churches!
So, to find a way to celebrate that good news, the “Amens” column was born. Now we share the good news of God’s activity among us, and what we share is just a brief synopsis of all the good that is going on in our district.
Faith is trusting that God is doing something good in the world. Hope is actually looking for that good and joining God in it.
Has God done all the good that needs to be done yet? No. If all was done, God would not ask us to cooperate with and assist God’s action around us. As the Apostle Paul says in the passage quoted above, “Who hopes for what he already has?”
Yes, much still needs to be done. That’s why the church still exists. That’s why God still calls our churches and church leaders, clergy and laity alike, to look for God’s good and join God in it.
We can be cynical and act as if God is not doing anything around us. We can discourage new ideas and veto challenging proposals because we don’t believe God will work with us. Or, we can trust that God will use us—and empower us—when we get a glimpse of God’s work in the world and catch a vision of where God wants us to serve. In demonstrating hope like that in God’s action in the world, we plant seeds of hope for others.
Go plant seeds of hope.