A Facebook post from one of my former newspaper colleagues recently caught my eye. She linked to a New York Times story (fmchr.ch/nydpg) with the compelling headline “One Company’s New Minimum Wage: $70,000 a Year.” I began reading about Dan Price, the founder of Gravity Payments, who “said he would pay for the wage increases by cutting his own salary from nearly $1 million to $70,000.”
I paused my reading and thought to myself: “I don’t know if this guy’s a Christian, but this is one of the most Christlike actions I’ve seen someone take.”
Reading on, I discovered that Price started the company “in his dorm room at Seattle Pacific University.” He’s a graduate of a Free Methodist educational institution. I searched SPU’s website and found an article (fmchr.ch/dpgravity) citing the influence of a Christian book on Price’s practice of simple living.
Compare Price’s example to another news story going viral on social media around the same time. ESPN suspended reporter Britt McHenry after the release of surveillance video that appeared to show her berating a towing company employee with profanity and disrespectful comments such as “lose some weight, baby girl.” McHenry, who has a master’s degree in journalism from a university with Methodist roots, mocked the worker for a lack of education and commented further about the worker’s personal appearance.
I can’t help but think of the contrast between these two financially successful young professionals who are only two years apart in age. Price embodies this issue’s “Love People” theme based on the Free Methodist mission to “love God, love people and make disciples.”
Price isn’t the only impressive young graduate of a Free Methodist college or university who’s loving people and influencing others to do the same. Two of this issue’s writers, Amy Boelé and Gregory R. Coates, also match that description. Keep reading, and keep loving others.
Downloadable PDF: Light + Life June 2015
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Features
- Feature: Finding Community Through Stories
- Bishops: Love People, Sometimes Be Nice
- Action: Four Steps for Fruitfulness
- Action: Multiplying Ministries
- Discipleship: B.T. Roberts’ Love for the Poor
- Free Methodist Church News: Summit Launches Prayer Movement
