Redeemer Family,

I have a friend who once took a college course in which the professor assigned a very short book (a pamphlet really) to the entire class on the first day of each semester. The book’s title is A Message to Garcia (You can read it for free here, it takes less than 5 minutes.)

The book contains piercing insight into our human tendency to abdicate responsibility and how vitally important it is for every society to have men and women who can get the job done, no questions asked. Whenever the professor was away from his office, he would leave a note on the door that simply read, “Go find Garcia.” It was his way of encouraging and challenging his students to figure out the answers to their questions without his help.

A good friend first put this book in my hands back in 2006 and it has become an annual re-read for me. I have also begun to inflict this little book on our staff here at Redeemer. The word Garcia has become, for us, a kind of short-hand for, “Work hard, don’t complain, no flaking, get the job done.”

*Flaking, for the uninitiated, is the technical term for not-really-doing-the-job-with-the-excellence-and-attentiveness-it-deserves. It comes from the Greek word flakio` and was historically used by Galilean fisherman to describe someone who said they would go fishing with you, but wasn’t willing to get up before sunrise to meet you at the boat.

Now, please don’t misunderstand and imagine that the work environment amongst our staff is one of ruthless productivity at the cost of kindness, warmth, and grace. Not at all! Rather, we are seeking to cultivate the kind of atmosphere where we can truly depend on each other, take one another at our word. A follow-up phrase to the word Garcia that we use has been, “If a Redeemer staff person says they’ll do something, you can consider it done.” If we live this way with one another, trust is built and all of our jobs and relationships actually become simpler, easier, and less stressful.

Now, here’s the pivot. Are you ready?

What if that wasn’t just the culture of Redeemer’s staff, but of our whole parish?

What if, when a member of Redeemer said they would do something, you could consider it done?

What if you knew that, if you asked a fellow member for help with something, you knew they would not only say a polite “yes,” but that they would really come through for you?

In other words, what if we knew, in the depths of our bones, that each other was trustworthy, dependable, reliable, and steadfast?

How much lighter would your own burdens be if you lived in a church family of men and women upon whom you could count to be there for you at a moment’s notice?

Let’s pivot again.

What if our neighbors, coworkers, and fellow Richmonders became aware that we were the kind of people who could be depended on, no exceptions?

How much lighter would their burdens be if the Christ-followers around them were utterly and predictably reliable and trustworthy?

In Matthew 5:37, Jesus famously says, “Let what you say be simply Yes or No.”

In nine short words, Christ calls us to be the sort of people who, with our words and our correlating actions, carry the proverbial message to Garcia.

We do this when we agree to bring a salad to Small Group and actually bring said salad.
We do this when we say we’ll read the next chapter before Book Club and we fully read the chapter, beginning to end.
We do this when our week to serve in Kids Ministry rolls around and we show up, on time, Volunteer T-shirt on, lesson plan prepared, ready to go.
We do this when we text someone, “I’m praying for you…” and then we physically drop to our knees and speak a real prayer to the Lord on their behalf.
We also do this when we arrive late, and instead of inventing an excuse, “Did you know I hit every red light on Boulevard from the stadium to Grove?” we simply apologize, “I’m sorry I am late, I did not plan enough margin in my day, please forgive me.”

Every day, in the thousands of interactions between the hundreds of church members, we are either cultivating an ethos of Garcia or an ethos of flakiness.

Church family, let’s be a parish of people who carry the message to Garcia.

In the Father’s love,