By The Rev. Dr. Carl Grosse

Shortly before leaving New York for Tennessee, Denise and I took a couple days to go to Cooperstown and see the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. We stopped at Crazy Otto’s in Herkimer on the way, which is a story in itself. I have commemorative coffee mugs from that visit. Both of us love sports, especially baseball. Because her family is from Cleveland, Denise has always had a special place in her heart for that team, even though we also rooted for the Reds and the Twins.

Parts of the museum exhibits show records, and I still think Babe Ruth is the GOAT if you include both offense and defense. If he stays healthy and out of trouble, Shohei Ohtani has a chance. Of course, this topic brings up home runs. The all-time leader list does not distinguish steroid-assisted numbers, so Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and Sammy Sosa are shown right along with Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. Interestingly, there’s an interactive display nearby that invites people to chime in on whether they think this method is wrong or right. 

Churches can become obsessed with numbers. How many members? How much money? We’re no different from anyone else at this point in terms of our temptation to cheat in order to win or at least stay competitive. What constitutes cheating in this game is a fair question, but do we even ask it in our pursuit of numbers? Usually, we assume that because it’s church it must be okay. 

As we remember the arrival of The One who would lead The Kingdom, let’s also remember that He played by The Book. Everyone who truly follows Him also cares about doing things His way. The numbers will be what they will be, our job is to live like He told us to. Especially in church. We won’t make it into His Hall of Fame because of numbers anyway, but by how He judges our faithfulness to the way life should be lived.