Guaranteed to Grow: Lessons from a Seed Packet

Brian Vondepowski, who's our head elder now, we were leading a seminar, the Contagious Adventist seminar training.

And it was over several weeks.

And one night, a couple showed up just a little bit late.

They had been going through the training.

And at the end, apologized for being late and said we had been waiting for the babysitter to show up.

And I was intrigued, waiting for babysitters to show up.

We get babysitters when we go to concerts, when we go out to dinner, some special event.

But to get a babysitter so you could attend a training at the church? I said, this was Garen and Bonnie Dent.

Garen owns a hardware store in town, the Village Do It Best Hardware.

And at the time, Bonnie was a teacher in the physical therapy department here at Andrews.

I said, Bonnie, why did you get a babysitter so you could come to training at the church? And I never forgot what Bonnie said.

She said, if a student comes to Andrews and does not grow spiritually, we have really messed up.

If a student comes to Andrews and doesn't grow spiritually, we have really messed up.

She was taking seriously her calling as a professor on this campus of Andrews University.

I was struck by her statement and applied it to my own life, and at that time was pastoring here at Pioneer.

And it went like this.

If a person is a member of Pioneer and doesn't grow spiritually, we have really messed up.

I've refined that over the years, over the time.

It says, if a person is a member of or regularly attends Pioneer and we don't provide the opportunity for them to grow spiritually, then we have really messed up.

So it's providing the opportunity for them to grow spiritually.

But what does it mean to grow spiritually? There are many definitions, but what Pastor Shane, the journey that he's been taking us on, there's three things I want to focus on.

To help us to grow spiritually, we will demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

You know, if we really have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, the fruit that's found in Galatians 5, we will be so different from the world.

They will wonder about us.

So the fruit of the spirit, exercising our spiritual gifts, and thank you for the story we had this morning about using our gifts.