Sermon: Grace Multiplied

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Grace Multiplied

By Charles T. Rush, Jr.

October 29, 2000

arles Kettering once said that when he was the head of Research at General Motors, he would regularly call together meetings of his engineers for a problem solving session. Pretty quickly, he learned not to allow slide rules into these meetings, whose purpose was to think in open-ended ways and canvass the horizon of possibilities. Before he banned slide rules, he said that there was always someone in the group who would hear a proposed solution before it had even been fully presented. With a few quick calculations, they would pronounce to the group, “That can't be done.”

We know about this phenomenon. I read a book on group dynamics and leadership a few years ago that said that for every 13 people in a group, one person will self-appoint themself as a blocker. They will assume that their contribution is to point out all of the obstacles to the project, everything that can go wrong, and why we shouldn't do what we have proposed to do.

By contrast, I was amused to read the comments of the scientist Rita Levi Montacini. She says that the single factor that makes for success in research is not intelligence, not efficiency, not thoroughness. It is the tendency to underestimate difficulties. A little naiveté doesn't hurt in the rough and tumble real world.

We know plenty of examples of people who have created stunningly successful businesses that probably never would have gotten started had they fully known exactly what was involved. We know plenty of people in fulfilling relationships that wouldn't have gotten started either, if a full disclosure agreement had been signed in advance.

George Dantzig was a graduate student in Math at U Cal-Berkeley during the depression. Teaching jobs were rarer then than they are now and there was a position open on the faculty for a junior lecturer in Math. Everyone wanted the job. The rumor around the department was that the job was going to go to the person that made the highest grade in one of the graduate courses in Math.

Dantzig was highly motivated and focused all his mental energies on getting the highest grade in that course, as only impoverished graduate students can do. He studied tirelessly.

The day came for the final exam and he overslept. When he awoke, he threw on some clothes, ran over to the classroom. There were 8 problems to solve. He barely had enough time to solve them but he did. However, there were also two more problems that the professor had put on the black board and he was out of time. Desperate, he pleaded with the professor for extra time for his two unfinished problems. The professor agreed and gave him a couple of extra days.

For a while he was completely stumped but eventually he had an answer, turned the problems in and he was finished.

The next day, his professor knocked on his door to speak with him about his exam. The 8 problems he had solved perfectly. The professor went on to explain that there had been a misunderstanding. The 8 problems were the total exam. The other two problems he had only put on the board for fun. They were two classic mathematical problems that no one had ever been able to solve, including some of most famous people in the history of the field. George Dantzig solved two problems no one could solve, partly because no one told him that it couldn't be done!

I had occasion to remember this a couple months ago, when we were having a staff meeting at Christ Church. I am blessed to Minister in a Church with a commitment to excellence in staff. At the end of the day, as you know, the single biggest criterion of success (that you can control) is the quality of the people that you are working with on your team. Some of the best long-term investments you can make on the stock market are when you happen to know that the huge core of people in a given enterprise are top-drawer. Somehow things are going to turn out all right.

I'm sitting around the table with my colleague Wayne Bradford, what a gift to the Church. He has such enormous talent and creativity. He has such a feel for developing meaningful worship. He has such experience and when it comes to being a master of music, experience counts for so much. It's like painting. There is just a richness and a depth that you couldn't attain when you were in your 20's. I've been privileged to work with him in the seasoned part of his career. It's great. I get to hear the postlude all during the week. Let me tell you, it's more fulfilling than a great wine after a tough day.

And Julie, we got her shortly out of Yale, still in formation. She didn't major in Christian Education at Yale but she had a lot of potential. She had the charisma. You could tell that. But when we asked her to solve our Christian Education problem, she did it. Bottom line. Christian education is no longer boring. Plus, she has a wonderful presence in worship. I'm at a worship service earlier this year- at another Church-, listening to a children's sermon, thinking to myself “Capital Korny… Korny religion- gag me with a spoon.” We don't have to put up with that. And there are some issues that women can talk to other women about and she does that. And she brings a different perspective to everything we do, a perspective that Wayne and I don't always have with our highly refracted Masculine glasses on. Now, we are getting her for half-time pay and believe me that is a full plate.

And Tom, right out of Union seminary. He is ready to do his job. I like that. He's had years working with Youth at risk in group counseling sessions, involved with drugs and all the other social issues that Youth go through. Fortunate for us, he wants to work with Youth in the Church. He's working with our Stephen Ministry and our Adult Education program, and with me on our Confirmation Class. And he will do visitation.

I looked through dozens of resumes for these two positions. We could have done a lot worse, believe me. I go to conferences occasionally where I hear Senior Ministers complain about colleagues that undermine their work or won't work as a team or who are dilettante's. They look at me and say, “Do you know what I mean?” I have to say, “at the moment, no.” By the way, I want it to stay that way.

And Christine, our Church Secretary, God bless her. She keeps us filed, organized, and reminds me where I am supposed to be right now. Each year, we pile more and more stuff on her desk and she makes it look effortless.

So I am at this staff meeting and I am remembering back to 7 years ago, the first week I got here. I got a call from one Zach Marks, inviting me to an interview. This would be about August 15^th. Boxes are still unpacked.

We are interviewing someone for Christian Education. I show up, meet Zach and someone else from the Church, and there is this person we are to interview. Nice person, but I remember the interview started to bomb pretty early on. At some point I looked at them, could see them ejecting from the pilot seat as the plane crashed over the Atlantic ocean. They left.

I said, “Zach, who are the other candidates for the position?” “Well”, he says, one of them never returned our phone calls and the other has some parole violation issues.” It wasn't quite that bad, but it was. I had this panic. It is late August, we have no staff to oversee CE… We have very capable volunteer, but volunteers need support. They need organization, they need leadership. I said, “Zach, what is our budget here? How much can we pay these people?” I don't remember the number but it was something but it was paltry… the paid volunteer level of remuneration.

Again, we had very dedicated and gifted volunteers to lead the Youth program but we had no staff whatsoever for support. No one with theological education to answer those tough questions that kids pose, questions that none of the rest of us feel equipped to answer. Our budget here, was next to nothing.

We had only one lead… a seminary student at New Brunswick Seminary that no one had heard of… Cynthia Hummel. I remember calling her up, casually, for an open-ended conversation. We met on campus. I was teaching at Rutgers. Casual led to vision led to talk of future. I wouldn't leave until I closed the deal.

It was a tenuous beginning and we were stuck because we were running a deficit budget at the time. Plus, one committee handed me a report that pointed out that next to no capital improvements had been done in the past 5 years and they had a list of about $250k of things that needed to be done… yesterday. I remember praying one time, “God, why does your Church so constantly seem to be held together by Duct tape and chewing gum?”

I should have gotten out then, but I didn't because I'm not very bright… and I am inordinately hopeful that God still works through the Church, compromised, lame, and indebted as it is. I remember sharing some of my anxiety one time with a couple people. David Bunting listened for a while and simply said “Charles, in the fullness of time, this will all turn around. When we need it, the money will come in.” Don't ask me why, but I believed him.

About a year and a half later, I came to you and said we wanted to have the best Christian Education program in our area. But we couldn't do it unless we hired someone who could show us what we needed to do. And that was going to cost more. We were already interviewing people at the time, we just didn't have any budget to hire them. But you stepped up to the plate. We raised the money just in time to bring Julie on staff. I want to thank you for that. It was the right thing to do. Dave Bunting was right. The money showed up just in time. It still feels like Duct tape and Chewing gum but the ball is bigger at least. She got things going with our Education program, worship and provided important support in pastoral care and with our Youth.

A year went by and I came before you again. I wanted to hire a part-time youth leader who had some theological education and training. We've had admirable volunteers for our youth over the years. They have been super. But they all get burned out because teenagers are tough and stuff can come up where it is easy to get in over your head. Again, we didn't have the budget. You stepped up to the plate. We raised the money just in time to hire a seminary student. Dave Bunting was right. The money showed up just in time. The Church still felt like it was held together with Duct tape and chewing gum but the ball was bigger at least.

Julie got pregnant and wanted to go to part-time. At the same time, the Deacon's wanted us to take pastoral care to the next level with Stephen's Ministry and the parents of our Youth were making organized and concerted noise that they wanted more, better attention paid to our Youth program than a seminary student could give. With Julie cutting back, we thought it was the ideal time to bring on a full-time Youth person who could also oversee and support more pastoral care. We brought Tom Martinez on board.

This fall, I had that wonderful experience where I finally said, “We are now a full-service church”. We have responsible leadership in every area of our mission. But, in order to sustain this, we have to stretch just a little bit more. Our budget has to grow another 5-7%. So I find myself back in the position of duct tape and chewing gum, only with a bigger, better ball.

This is simply a stretch time in the life of our church. It is a faith step time. I'm quite sure that the way to go is to put together an excellent leadership team first. All other problems will be solved with a team of committed excellence.

We are working to keep our budgets tight. We will continue to do that.

As you know, we are going to come back to you in January and ask you to make a one time, substantial contribution to put an addition on Barnwell hall. For the next three years, we will stretch.

We will get there. I've looked over the preliminary numbers. We will get there. It will be tight for a while, but we will get there. But, it will take all of us making a stretch in order to do it.

What I need out of you is this. I need you to have a conversation with your family about your charitable giving. I want you to consider making Christ Church more of a priority in the next three years than you have in the past. I think it is time for a shift in your priorities. You can do it. And I know enough of you will do it that this will come together. It is the right thing to do. It will be a spiritual investment that reaps very important returns. But we cannot do it without you. We have to have a real, honest to God financial commitment from each and every one of you.

It is true that the Church is held together by Duct tape and chewing gum and that may not be all bad. I'm not going to fixate on all the potential pitfalls and problems that lie ahead. I hope all of us keep focused on becoming a spiritual center of excellence, a place that is well rounded and caring. That, plus some creativity and a good sense of humor, is what makes Christ Church great. And Dave Bunting, I am hoping that you are right that in the fullness of time, when we need the money, it will show up.

In the mean time Brothers and sisters, pass the chewing gum. This ball just got bigger again.

Amen.