Would you agree with the following two sentences? The early Christian church was perfect. That’s why Christianity spread so rapidly in such a relatively short period of time.

I cannot imagine anyone who, upon reading that, would find it true. Just reading the New Testament, and Paul’s epistles in particular, confirms that the church was not even close to perfection. In fact, many of those who had just learned about Jesus and salvation were the very ones assisting in the conversions of other new believers—and in the running of the fledgling faith. Every person was new to the Christian community! It would be impossible to know it all and do everything properly when you’ve just received the knowledge in both heart and mind. (H’mmm . . . grace, anyone?)

But Christianity did spread. God—and His faithful followers—saw to it. While they weren’t perfect, they were passionate. Prayerful. Eager. Humble. Open.

A couple thousand years later and guess what? We may know more, and have more to work with, but we aren’t perfect either.

A May 28, 2014, Wall Street Journal article lists Mastercard; Mars, Inc.; and Cisco as large companies that have formal programs in “reverse mentoring” (“Pairing Up With a Younger [Technology] Mentor,” by Sue Shellenbarger, available online at http://online.wsj.com). The idea is that the older employee can learn new technology (i.e., social media) from the younger; and the younger can learn proper business etiquette and procedure (i.e., face-to-face communication) from the older.

While we’ve come along in some ways, we don’t have the perfection thing down pat. We must still take our cues from our heavenly Father. Learn first from God. Then let us learn from each other. Reverse, forward, sideways, from the wayside, up, or down—let’s work together with prayerful passion, eagerness, openness, and humility.