INTENTIONALLY GROWING IN GRACE

I accepted Christ as Savior in 1975 when I was 19. I then did what I was told to do—got active in church. I went to graduate school in the fall of 1976 and almost instantly became a college/career Sunday School teacher. This was the beginning of seeking to do what I was led to believe was “The Way” of Christ. Over the many years I’ve worked in church in almost every conceivable capacity: youth director, door-to-door evangelism, royal ambassadors, AWANA, recreation director, teacher, campus minister, elder, deacon, men’s ministry, vacation Bible school, inner-city food distribution . . . and so it goes.

After almost 19 years I realized that I was trying very hard to “do” which, I was told, would lead me into a closer walk with Jesus. But the emperor had no clothes. In 1994 I was at the point that I realized I’d spent all that time doing “holy” work, church work, but it was mostly the same old Jerry doing it on my own—“lead, follow, or get out of my way.” I came to a crisis where I determined that either I would find a path to a vital relationship with Jesus—one like the New Testament describes—or I’d quit this “church thing” altogether. I had no spiritual power, no spiritual strength, little interactivity with Jesus, and my prayer life was almost non-existent.

Much like the prodigal, Jesus was just waiting for me to come to my senses. Sometime in late 1993 or very early in 1994, I found on my bookshelf a book I’d owned since 1982, Celebration of Discipline, written by Richard Foster. I’d never been able to read it before, though I had tried on several occasions. Now it was as if I’d discovered a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Here was a way of discipleship that opens a life to Jesus.

In early 1994 I heard that Richard Foster had founded a new ministry called RENOVARÉ and was going to speak at a conference in Boulder, Colorado, very close to where Vicky and I were living. We registered, looking on it as a weekend get-away for we stayed at the very nice Boulder Broker Hotel. We feared we would come away from the Conference guilt-ridden, beaten up again by a preacher with more unbearable “oughtta-dos” to “sell.”

But NO! We found people who were living in grace, expressing peace, who clearly thought of themselves as no-big-thing but knew Jesus and could genuinely show us how to walk with Jesus in a way that fits into life and produces real spiritual fruit. Peacefulness, gentleness, joy, humor, hope, love—the Fruit of the Spirit—was tangibly present and we were trained in how intentionally to grow in grace.

Life hasn’t been the same since. Jesus met me in my need. Jesus is the one and only answer to life—all of life. With many starts and stops I have imperfectly and inconsistently put into practice what I was taught, but I started and I will not stop. While I’m still very much a work-in-progress, I at least know where and how to find the One who gives Abundant Life.

We are called to make disciples, teaching everyone who is willing to obey Jesus. This is why I teach. This is what I want for you very much—the Abundant Life which is the obedient life (John 10:10). As you look forward, won’t you invest some time in learning how to grow in grace? The fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, and self-control. My prayer is, and always shall be, that you grow in grace so that the fruit of the Spirit may ever more abound in you and through you to the glory of Jesus.

- Jerry McKamy, Gaithersburg, Maryland (written to his Sunday School class)