A temporary office-help agency in Washington DC once offered a $100 bonus to the employee who made the biggest mistake of the month. He doesn't get a reprimand. He doesn't get demoted. He gets a $100 bonus. An executive for a company called Sara Lee Direct thought he was getting a great deal on a shipment of belts, so he acted quickly and bought a whole warehouse full. Only later did he discover that what he bought was not manufacturing belts for the conveyor system at the factory, but a bunch of those three-inch-wide paisley belts from the 1960s. Instead of getting fired, he was awarded a bronze plaque that proudly commemorated the "Worst Buy of the Year."

Reading these stories brings two reactions. First, are these businesses nuts? Have they gone crazy, or what? The second thought is that maybe the church council could be talked into adopting a similar policy. Maybe there could be a bonus for the worst sermon of the month. What pastor couldn't use some extra cash?!

Seriously though, there's a strategy behind rewarding mistakes. The president of that temporary help company explained it this way: "The object is to get people to take risks." An official at Sara Lee Direct where the employee got promoted instead of fired for making that terrible purchase put it this way, "If you don't go up to the plate and swing hard, you're never going to hit a home run. If you're not willing to make a mistake, you're not really trying."

The bottom-line is that risk-taking is the only road to success. And companies are finding that it's worth rewarding a few mistakes along the way if it encourages their people to take the kind of risks that can bring huge rewards. And the same is true for people of faith.

How much faith does it take to follow? How much risk are we willing to take? That's the crux of the discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus. That's what Jesus meant when he said you must be reborn.