Picture this scenario. A friend has just seen a movie that they really enjoyed. They begin sharing their excitement with you. They tell you that this movie has everything, maybe that it is one of their top 10 favourites ever, and that you just have to go see it. You get all caught up in their excitement. Well after all if your friend enjoyed it, then surely you would enjoy it as well. But when you leave the theatre you are very disappointed. For whatever reason you hated it, or were bored by the movie. It was just not your cup of tea. You figure that your friend must be totally off his/her rocker to have enjoyed this movie.
Has that ever happened to you? People tell you that something will be wonderful when it isn't wonderful but merely good or bad. This week I have been laughing all week. Someone invited me to a meeting that they have said will be extraordinary. Such an invitation is doomed to failure. If it is indeed a wonderful meeting all you can say is that the event lived up to its expectations. You will forget how wonderful it was just because the invitation already promised that it would be. The effect of that terrific meeting will have been lost because of the invitation. If the meeting is rather ordinary, you leave the meeting hall disappointed. It wasn't extraordinary at all. If the meeting is a good meeting but not terrific, you will have felt left down. The invitation was like my friend explaining their excitement over that movie- it built things up too much.
I think a worse problem though in the church is that we undersell our work too much. We are too self effacing. We forget about all the lives that we have touched and just put it down to "oh it is just something we did." We could share wonderful stories of all the work that we do, but instead we either forget about our stories or just refuse to tell them to others.
During the years 2008-2011, I worked for the National office of the United Church of Canada. My job was to promote the good news of all of the work that was being done by congregations, outreach ministries, global overseas partners, and the national church. It was indeed a work of love. And I was amazed at the thousands of lives that had been touched by our churches. Through the dedicated work of church men and women and the various church agencies, our United of Canada can and indeed made a difference in the world. But too often churches forgot to tell the world that they were doing this work. Not only were they not overselling their efforts, they were underselling their efforts or just ignoring them completely. We forget that others outside of our walls don't know that we struggled to make working conditions more humane, support the rights of children, support women's rights, work for peace in the world, empower people in the third world, feed and provide shelter for the hungry, and so many other things. People forget we are a vital part of our community because we forget to talk about the work we have done and are doing.
That is a great problem. We live in a world where we hear so much bad news. The community is seeking a respite from this doom and gloom. The world is looking for good news. The church's role is to preach the good news. And if we are unwilling to talk about the good news of the work that we have done, our world misses out. We need to stop underselling our works. Blessings.
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