Twenty years ago, Scott Ginsberg was a student at the University of Miami and had just finished attending a very uneventful conference. Like everyone, he had a nametag. As he left the conference, he passed a trash can full of name tags that people had ripped off. And he wondered, what if I do just the opposite? He left the name tag on. A funny thing happened. Everyone was friendlier. Girls talked to him. People noticed him. He didn’t take the name tag off that night or any night for the next 3000 day. He even got a nametag tattooed to his chest. And he is still wearing his name tag 20 years later…
We are not asking you to get a nametag tattoo, but during our Sunday Series “The Four Loves”, I am asking you to join me in wearing a nametag. We are going for a whole lot more than friendly in our community… our church. We are going for knowing each other. Nametags can lead to friendships. This week, we will not only wear nametags, but we will dig into friendship love – “Philia”.
Here’s what C.S. Lewis had to say about our Christian friendships:
“In friendship… we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”
Christ chose you for one another. How powerful is that. Sunday we will explore this love that C.S. Lewis called the dismissed love. On Sunday, we will also baptize the newest GRACE little one at the Classic 9 am service.
I can’t wait for Sunday.
Dr. Marnie Crumpler, Senior Pastor
P.S. I trust you are making plans to attend our Congregational Meeting on March 1st. See information below. At the meeting, we will have an update about our new campus. Just a reminder, every Wednesday at 12 noon, you are invited to pray at the Hecktown road property. A GRACE staff person will be there to lead you through the 20-minute prayer time