Dear Salvation Salesforce,

Several years ago, friend and colleague The Reverend Claude Lewis reprimanded me for making a disparaging comment about some members of my then congregation. “Jonathan, you’ve got to preach to the people God gives you, not the ones you wish would come.” Those words have stuck with me along with his advice, “If you think you’re leading and nobody is following, you’re just taking a walk.”

I was reminded of Claude’s instruction a few weeks ago while at a Presbyterian clergy conference sponsored by our denomination’s Board of Pensions. One of the presenters reintroduced us to the writings of civil rights leader The Reverend Howard Thurman, a pioneer in the discipline of non-violent social change. Thurman’s work was always rooted in the cold reality of how things are rather than wistful vision of how we would like them to be. “There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves,” wrote Thurman. “The 1st is ‘Where am I going?’ and the 2nd is ‘Who will go with me?’ If you ever get these questions in the wrong order, you are in trouble.” The trouble results when we ask the question of popularity before we answer the question of identity; we become inauthentic, or as Thurman called it, we lose the genuine.

My father worked several years in sales; he hated it. He wasn’t bad at it. In fact, he won several national awards, but he disliked the constant tension between sales volume and customer need. He felt it was dishonest to sell a customer something he knew would not solve their problem, no matter how much they wanted it. He sold auto parts and supplies at a time when additives and special fluids were all the rage, alleging improved mileage and magical reduction in engine wear. Having been a mechanic for years before being promoted to sales, he knew the manufacturers' claims regarding these performance elixirs were just scams. So, no matter how lucrative and popular they became, he refused to sell them, much to the dismay of his wholesalers. His bosses would send him to conferences and instructional seminars, urging him to show the customers how much he believed in the products. But every time he inquired regarding chemistry and mechanics of a specific item he was derided for his doubt. Dad used to joke, “In sales it turns out the secret is sincerity; once you can fake that you can sell anything.”

Which brings me back to our Christian witness. Can we start from who God has created us to be? Is it possible God is not calling us to be big or popular, but instead to fully embody who we are and walk only in the direction God is calling us to go? Can we answer the question of our genuine self, our honest sincerity? If we don’t start from where we are, in the end we will be nowhere. Or as Thurman wrote, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Seeking the genuine to come alive, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor