The Rev. John Kimmons
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Significance,
Not Success, Is Important To God, Says Erskine
College Baccalaureate Speaker
In a May 14 baccalaureate sermon based on Romans
12:2, which says in part, “be not conformed to
this world,” the Rev. John Kimmons, pastor of
Christ Community Church, Greensboro, N.C., told
Erskine College seniors, “You need to be driven
by pleasing God, not by pleasing people.”
Urging students to look beyond mere survival or
even what the world considers success, Kimmons said,
“God doesn't care about your success, he cares
about your significance.
“Every one of us is driven. Some of us are
driven by guilt, some by a desire to win,” the
former Erskine tennis and soccer player told the
assembly of graduating seniors, faculty, family, and
friends.
“Many people have climbed the ladder of
success, only to discover when they reach the top
that they've propped their ladder on the wrong
wall.”
Using the acronym S.H.A.P.E., and assisted by
Erskine students in the choir who held up each letter
at the appropriate moment, Kimmons told the
graduating seniors to serve God according to their
spiritual gifts, their heart, their abilities, their
personality, and their experience.
“If you do what God has shaped you to
do,” he said, frustration will be reduced,
motivation and concentration will be increased, and
cooperation will be made possible. “If you know
where you're going, people will go with you. People
will follow you and cooperate with you if you're
following God's will.”
Kimmons demonstrated how the world can exert
pressure on people to “be conformed.”
“People are going to try to get you to do
things that God has not called you to do. Some people
will tell you you should look like this,” he
said, plastering a bright pink piece of children's
putty over his nose. “You need to learn how to
say No.”
“Maybe you have not excelled here at
Erskine,” Kimmons said. “Maybe you have not
yet discovered what it is God has shaped you to do.
“I remember when I was seated where you are
now—and let me tell you, I didn't know squat
about what I was supposed to do next.”
Kimmons said he was neither a Christian nor a good
student while he was at Erskine, but that about a
year after graduation he became committed to Jesus
Christ. “I thank those in the Due West Church
who tolerated my bad behavior and showed me what
Christians ought to be,” said Kimmons.
Understanding God's purpose for your life, Kimmons
said, will “help prepare you for the final
evaluation,” God's judgment. He said that God
will ask each person, “What did you do with
Christ?” and “What did you do with your
life?”
Kimmons exhorted seniors to live their lives
“passionately and to God's glory,” so that
at the end they will not say of their own lives that
they simply “used resources and wasted
time.”
“Inside every ugly hairy caterpillar,”
Kimmons said, waving a plush multi-legged stuffed
creature and pulling on it until a pair of bright
wings emerged, “is a beautiful butterfly.”
Erskine College and Seminary chaplain Jay West,
who introduced Kimmons, said of him, “He is
genuinely concerned when he asks how you're
doing—if he tells you he will pray for you, you
can take that to the bank.” Kimmons, a graduate
of Erskine College and Western Theological Seminary,
has served as pastor at Christ Community Church, an
Associate Reformed Presbyterian congregation that has
experienced great growth during his ministry, for
more than 20 years.
The baccalaureate service was held in the Due West
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Music for the
baccalaureate service was provided by the choir of
Due West Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church,
assisted by members of the Erskine College Choraleers
and community members; Erskine professor emerita
Cortlandt Koonts, organist and choir director; and
rising Erskine junior David Coleman, who served as
organ accompanist.
