Faith Creation -- FPC sermon excerpt
If you want better health, you’ve got to hop on a bike and pedal like crazy. I received a bike for my 50th birthday, and I’ve been riding hard on some nice long trips.
So biking is good for physical health. But what if you want stronger faith?
You should do the very same thing.
A man named Grant Harrison had a brainstorm one day, as he was working at the Innovation Center at the Humana health benefits company in Louisville. The Innovation Center is a think tank, so Harrison was … thinking. It was dawning on him that health-insurance companies need to change, that they cannot focus solely on health policy reform. Then the light-bulb went on in his head: Humana had to become “a health-creation company”!
Not health-insurance. Health-creation! And the goal had to be “to make fun things healthy.”
But how was he going to do it? The devil is always in the details.
Harrison thought of bicycles, and how they could become a healthy way for people to commute to work. “Fifty percent of people drive to work less than 5 miles in their cars,” he said to Fast Company magazine (September 2009). “They could be doing this on a bike. If somebody starts commuting this way, within a year, he or she will have lost 13 pounds on average.” Plus, “when you get people on two wheels, you unlock this feeling of being a kid again.”
He’s right. Biking to work and back is a good way to make fun things healthy.
So Harrison created a system at Humana called B-cycle — automated kiosks that let riders rent bikes. A quarter of Humana’s 10,000 employees signed up within the first six weeks. The next step is to bring 50,000 bikes to a dozen cities in the next three years.
B-cycle is a great example of health-creation. And it is fun as well, unlocking the feeling of being a kid again!
Churches, unfortunately, are sometimes viewed as divine insurance companies, providing protection against spiritual disaster and eternal damnation. You’ve probably seen the church sign that says, “The way some people live, they ought to obtain eternal fire insurance.”
But shouldn’t church be in the faith-creation business? When the risen Jesus appears to his followers in the Gospel of John, he doesn’t ask them to take out an insurance policy to provide protection in the afterlife. Instead, he says, “Peace be with you,” “I send you,” “Receive the Holy Spirit,” “Forgive sins,” and “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus comes back from the dead to do the work of faith-creation, so that his followers will move forward as strong, healthy, and vigorous disciples.
He gives them a bicycle — or maybe a faith-cycle — and sends them out, saying, “Hop on and ride!”
So biking is good for physical health. But what if you want stronger faith?
You should do the very same thing.
A man named Grant Harrison had a brainstorm one day, as he was working at the Innovation Center at the Humana health benefits company in Louisville. The Innovation Center is a think tank, so Harrison was … thinking. It was dawning on him that health-insurance companies need to change, that they cannot focus solely on health policy reform. Then the light-bulb went on in his head: Humana had to become “a health-creation company”!
Not health-insurance. Health-creation! And the goal had to be “to make fun things healthy.”
But how was he going to do it? The devil is always in the details.
Harrison thought of bicycles, and how they could become a healthy way for people to commute to work. “Fifty percent of people drive to work less than 5 miles in their cars,” he said to Fast Company magazine (September 2009). “They could be doing this on a bike. If somebody starts commuting this way, within a year, he or she will have lost 13 pounds on average.” Plus, “when you get people on two wheels, you unlock this feeling of being a kid again.”
He’s right. Biking to work and back is a good way to make fun things healthy.
So Harrison created a system at Humana called B-cycle — automated kiosks that let riders rent bikes. A quarter of Humana’s 10,000 employees signed up within the first six weeks. The next step is to bring 50,000 bikes to a dozen cities in the next three years.
B-cycle is a great example of health-creation. And it is fun as well, unlocking the feeling of being a kid again!
Churches, unfortunately, are sometimes viewed as divine insurance companies, providing protection against spiritual disaster and eternal damnation. You’ve probably seen the church sign that says, “The way some people live, they ought to obtain eternal fire insurance.”
But shouldn’t church be in the faith-creation business? When the risen Jesus appears to his followers in the Gospel of John, he doesn’t ask them to take out an insurance policy to provide protection in the afterlife. Instead, he says, “Peace be with you,” “I send you,” “Receive the Holy Spirit,” “Forgive sins,” and “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus comes back from the dead to do the work of faith-creation, so that his followers will move forward as strong, healthy, and vigorous disciples.
He gives them a bicycle — or maybe a faith-cycle — and sends them out, saying, “Hop on and ride!”
posted by Henry Brinton | 11:56 AM
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