的 蓝色的论坛 is your place to learn about all things Covenant and keep up with stories from campus and beyond. By guiding you through the different aspects of Covenant, we'll help you decide if you want to pursue your very own Covenant experience.
亲爱的圣约学生会，去建造吧
读完这篇文章后，我想让你记住一个词：构建。 建一座教堂。 建立一个社区。 组建家庭。 建立一个企业。 Now before I explain what I mean by these four kinds of 构建ing, I will first clarify "构建" with four observations about what I do not mean. 让我做一分钟哲学家。 We define things by contrast.
不要从头开始
By 构建 I do not mean start from scratch. 的 kind of 构建ing I have in mind is like the cathedral 构建ing that C.S. Lewis describes in his very last book, 被丢弃的图像. 的 subtitle is daunting: 文艺复兴和中世纪文学导论, but really it's fantastic. 一座大教堂不是一辈子就能建成的。 的 medieval artisans who built the great cathedrals—masons, master 构建ers, carpenters, glaziers—typically joined the project long after it had started, and most of them died before it was finished. 他们加入了其他人的工作。 So when I say 构建, I mean join good work that other people are already doing.
不要在你的作品上签名
By 构建 I do not mean 构建 your brand. 中世纪大教堂的建造者不会在作品上签名。 的 masons who fitted the stones together matched the bottom stone to the stone on top of it so perfectly that no mortar was necessary. 的y didn’t sign their work because to sign their work would make it so that it didn’t do its job. 的y didn’t care about whether they got credit. 的y cared about whether it was excellent work, and they cared that it would fulfill its function, which was to bring glory to God and to serve the community. 他们没有建立自己的私人品牌。 So when I say 构建, I mean focus on serving others, not on getting credit.
不要燃烧和重建
Third, by 构建 I do not mean burn and then re构建. 的 world will whisper to you that the quickest way to make a difference or to make a name for yourself is to call out and destroy someone prominent. 这非常诱人，因为回报很快。 的 whisperers might even get crafty and say, “This is what a prophet does.” Now that might be what prophets did in the Old Testament—not sure about that—pretty sure they were bringing a covenant lawsuit. 今天先知所做的就是忠实地传讲神的道。 And if a sister or brother needs to be corrected, a true prophet does it in private—ideally face to face and clearly in love. 你已经学会了怎么做——继续做下去。
的 sad truth is that the people you’re most likely to hurt if you 构建 your brand by burning are people close to you. 远处的人不会听到你的。 So if you want a reputation for being insightful or clever, you’re going to have to make your target people who will listen—and that’s going to be people in your church, people in your family, and your friends. Anybody close enough to hear and care is close enough to be hurt. 撒旦喜欢我们互相撕咬吞吃。
By 构建 I mean affirm what is good. Encourage your sisters and brothers, and pour yourself out.
不要独自建造
Fourth, by 构建 I do not mean work alone and astonish everyone with your solo accomplishments. Now to a certain extent, we’ve encouraged that in your classes—very little group work, lots of solo accomplishments, lots of things done quietly to surprise me. Cathedral 构建ing took a community. Just about everything you’re going to do after today is going to take a community. 没有人拥有建造大教堂所需的全部技能。 没有人有足够的时间，即使一个人可以完成所有的事情。 的 cathedral itself was the visible presence of an institution. Institution-构建ing is the most effective way to serve others, and it is especially the most effective way to serve the vulnerable and the weak.
制度vs个人主义
的 forces that make individualism so powerfully attractive—you’ve heard a lot about it from your Covenant professors—we’re really good at pointing out individualism as being bad, and it is, but it’s especially bad when you think about what it means to make a difference in the world. Institutions are stable and visible in ways that individuals are not. 机构为弱势群体服务，因为他们在那里，他们值得信赖。 他们通常比任何一个人都更值得信赖。 Any one individual is likely to let you down or lose their focus or change their mind. Institutions can be depended on. 机构也会增加你的影响力。 他们同时为许多人服务。 的y can outlast us, and the institutions will still be here after you’re gone.
所以我说的建立，是指建立服务他人的机构。
正如我一开始提到的，我希望你们建立四种制度。 And no matter what comes after you walk across the stage at graduation, you can get started on all of them immediately. 现在，你在其中一个问题上怀疑我，但是等等。
建造一座教堂
第一：建一座教堂。 Your Covenant education has equipped you to be uncommonly effective at contributing to the life of a local church. Whenever you graduate from Covenant, you’ve had enough Bible and doctrine to teach Sunday school at any level for decades, like until you’re senile.
I still have the notes that I took in my classes as an undergraduate at Covenant almost 50 years ago. 我使用它们。 I take them out to get ready to teach first-grade Sunday school. 我在主日学校教一年级已经20年了。 It’s harder than you might think, and way more rewarding than you can guess. Even more importantly, when James and John wanted to be made great in Jesus’s coming kingdom, Jesus turned their attention to welcoming children. 去服侍孩子们吧。
但除了教导之外，你还可以找到其他方法在教会里运用你的才能。 You can sing in the choir—I’ve sung next to many of you in chapel—make meals for families with challenges, clean bathrooms. You will always find people willing to let you help with that. Everything you do for a local church sets someone else free to serve other people. 教会是一个能使你在世界上的影响力倍增的机构。 Build a church.
建立社区
第二：建立社区。 的 community I’m asking you to 构建 is much more than a general sense of well-being. What you’ve enjoyed at Covenant has depended upon a mutual willingness to sacrifice merely private desires. What I’ve heard in student testimonies was, over and over again, “的re were people I could depend on in my class who would set their desires aside to care for me.” That’s the kind of community that you want. 这取决于自愿把别人的需要放在自己的需要之前。
教堂是一个你可以做志愿者的地方。 But there are going to be other organizations wherever you end up who will be able to use your skills, your time, your energy, your ideas, your encouragement—the same way a church could. You don’t have to volunteer everywhere—you can’t. 但你应该找个地方做志愿者。
约后的生活和约前的生活并没有什么不同。 I know—I’ve done it. 如果每个人都说别人会做，没有人会做，每个人都会受苦。 Your residence hall was healthy when everyone looked out for each other’s needs and looked for ways to bear each other’s burdens. And your hall was toxic when even a few people tore each other down and left the hard things for everyone else. 的 same will be true wherever you go next. 建立一个社区。
组建家庭
第三：组建家庭。 I understand that 构建ing a church and 构建ing a community are things you can contribute to all by yourself. Building a family requires other people. 几乎你们所有人都已经是家庭的一部分，你们可以帮助建立家庭。 我希望到目前为止，你可能一直在帮助建立它。 Yes, that family—the one out there, the ones you’re trying to prove you don’t need—you might need them a little and they need you. 的y need you to contribute to the life that they have with your encouragement, with your prayers, looking for opportunities to bear their burdens. 你也可以把它们解放出来为其他人服务。
Now, if you find someone of the opposite sex to share your life with who isn’t already married—that’s important—you can start your own family. God’s word encourages that sort of thing. 我结婚快41年了，有四个成年子女。 我知道作为一个单身的人是可以快乐的——我知道这一点。 But it’s been over 40 years and I can’t imagine being happy without my wife, and my children are a continual source of joy. 我的家人增加了我的影响力。 的y serve other people in ways that I cannot and in places I can’t be. 组建家庭。
创业
第四：创业。 Again, this doesn’t mean you have to start a business—although you could. Some of you will do that, and many Covenant grads have done that and done it really well. But most of you will be like me: you will find someone willing to pay you to contribute to what they are already doing. Covenant has equipped you to be very effective employees and teammates. When you can choose, prefer working for a business that is pursuing healthy outcomes over a company that will pay you a lot for frivolous outcomes. 你不必穷——真的，你不必穷。 But a modest income doing something that truly serves others will be much more satisfying than a fat paycheck doing something else. 建立一个企业。
这个建议符合圣经吗？
Before I finish, let me answer two likely objections—again, you can’t keep a philosopher from thinking about the likely objections. Here’s the first one: Is any of this advice biblical?
我们不是被放逐的以色列人，也不是受罗马迫害的教会； 即便如此，巴比伦对我们现在所处的世界的描述并不可怕。 耶利米书第29章是写给流亡在巴比伦的以色列人的。 Paul in 2 的ssalonians is writing to the church in the Roman world that John describes as Babylon. 的y agree that what we are to do as God’s people is to seek the welfare of the city wherein we find ourselves. 就像耶利米说的：“他们得好处，我们也得好处。” We do that by 构建ing institutions that serve other people. We probably won’t end up being great the way the world counts greatness, but Jesus will be pleased with faithfulness anyway.
实用性在哪里？
第二个反对意见是：这些对你现在有什么帮助？ As I was reading over my notes for this piece, I thought: How will this help the graduates who are heading into a world dominated by angry protests, financial distress, and violence? That’s a good question. 但这不是问题的全部。 的 whole question ends in: 对于愤怒和暴力，我们能做些什么？
我们可以做神的子民一直在做的事：祷告和爱。 We pray that God will turn people’s hearts away from hatred, that they will turn to Jesus. Without the Holy Spirit working in people’s hearts, hatred will win. 我们爱威尼斯人平台邻居。 We love them specifically and practically by 构建ing institutions that care for them.
的 kind of 构建ing I’m asking you to pursue now is how Jesus would have us make a difference in a broken world. 我不是在逃避外面的混乱。 I’m giving us something to do about it.
小告白
我的最后一点是坦白。 If I had been told when I graduated to 构建 a church, a community, a family, and a business, I would have thought, 这正是我周围的普通人需要听到的。 但我很特别！ And, it’s even a little worse than that. I would have thought, 我很聪明。 我需要做点大事。 Teaching Sunday school, volunteering at the hospital, raising children, and working for a small college wouldn’t have been enough. 为了让自己感到骄傲，我需要做得更多。 耶稣需要我做的远不止这些。 我真的会这么想——但我错了。
耶稣只需要我的建议。 耶稣不需要这些。 我当然不需要更多了。 And being proud of myself is a silly thing to want. What I really wanted was for others to be impressed by me—and we all know what a foolish desire that is—yet it is a very hard desire to kill.
I now know that the most effective way to kill that foolish desire is to experience the joy of seeing others served by using your talents. 建立制度服务他人。 At some point you’ll realize that even if you never get any credit, it will be more than enough. Playing a tiny role in Jesus’s work of making all things new is what you were called to do—it is what we were made to do. 现在，开始构建吧。