Del Rey Church: Playa Del Rey, CA

Suppose your boss, who is really interested in your career and wants you to be successful, gives you a six-week project. He estimates it will take about 22 hours of your time over those six weeks. Doing it well will totally set you up for bigger and better things at the company. Plus, the CEO, who knows everything that is going on at the company, will take personal note of your work and reward you for it. Do you:

(a) Do the project really well and on time;
(b) Do the project, but do a crummy job;
(c) Do part of the project but not finish it, or finish it late;
(d) Not do the whole project but pretend that you did;
(e) Do it for a couple hours and then totally bail; or
(f) Not even bother because "it's too hard" (insert whiny tone)?

The answer is obviously (a).

The project is for the Men's Group, reading "An Infinite Journey" by Andrew Davis, a book about sanctification - the process of a Christian becoming more holy and less sinful. The "boss" in this scenario is the Del Rey Church elders: Pastor Matt et al. The assignment was to read the book over the past six weeks of Men's Group meetings. The book is about 450 pages long; at a generous 3 minutes per page, it would take 1,350 minutes to read, or about 22 hours. Reading the book and applying it to your life will totally set you up for bigger and better things at church (a.k.a., "the company") and in life in general, because it is God's will for you to grow in holiness and Christlikeness. Jesus, of course, is the CEO, and he knows everything and rewards the faithful. So - men - how did you do on the project?

Friends, let us consider the uncomfortable possibility that we allow ourselves to treat "church stuff" in a way that we would never act at work. Let's realize that the pastors love us and want what is best for us, and they have exhorted us to read and think and learn and feel and do certain things for our own good. Then let's commit ourselves to doing things better for Jesus than we would for any mortal boss.