Dear Edgeboro Friends & Family,

In thinking about what to write for this newsletter, I began to look back on the month of April. It was an eventful month, for the church and for me. The Mystery Dinner Theater, Moravian Music Sunday, the “Moravian 101” class, and Easter Sunday were all wonderful, but are now in the books, and I witnessed a friend being ordained and celebrated making it to another decade in life. All of those are great memories to recall, but just this morning, hours before writing this, I remembered another event that began a few days before April – Opening Day for Major League Baseball. It was fresh in my memory because of a moment of distraction I had with a baseball video on my phone.

The video was of a TV show host demonstrating a practice drill that can be used to work on fielding. It was probably my prior experience of being a baseball coach that had me glued to this video, because I’m sure there are plenty of you reading that wouldn’t find that interesting at all. In any case, I’ve always been amazed by the intense repetition of basic skills that athletes and others go through when practicing. Some athletes will take hundreds of ground balls, free-throws, swings, or laps on a regular basis in order to perfect their craft.

A book came out about ten years ago by an author named Malcolm Gladwell along the same lines of this topic on practice. In the book, he suggests a “10,000-hour rule,” saying that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something. This roughly equates to 10 years of 20 hours of practice per week. That’s a lot of time and dedication! Disclaimer! – I have not read this book and I don’t claim to abide by the 10,000-hour rule. I simply bring it up to make a point.

Our faith is something to be practiced too. The apostle Paul said in the conclusion of his letter to the Philippians, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me – put it into practice.” (4:9) When was the last time we felt like we needed to practice the basics of worship, prayer, study of scripture, and service? Are we willing to devote the time it might take for our faith to grow?

I’m not saying we all need to read scripture or pray for 20 hours a week to amass 10,000 hours. While I would admire such an undertaking, that would not be practical for us today who are not residents of a monastery. I am suggesting that any time is a good opportunity to reset and refocus on making the opportunities to worship, pray, study, and serve.

Brothers and sisters, may we be blessed in everything we do in faith, for it is those efforts which bring the very presence of God to this world.

Practicing in faith with you,

Pastor Dan