Giving away the offering

I remember growing up in church and we took up special offerings a couple of times a year that was sent to missionaries. It was probably the first time that it became clear that when we give money to the church, it didn't go directly to helping people. As a kid, I didn't realize how much money was spent to keep the grass mowed, the lights on, and the gymnasium cooled. Then as an adult, I began to wonder what it would be like if churches began to give all their money away instead of spending it on upkeep and that sort of thing. How crazy would that be? What if instead of your annual offerings for missionaries, all your giving went directly to those that were outside of your community?

Well call us crazy, but we're trying something like that. In lieu of Christmas presents or a seasonal offering, we ask that you would donate here: http://mycharitywater.org/myxmaspresent2010

Thanks and God bless.

"I remember Halloween..."

So it's Halloween, as I was reminded by all of the costumes my students wore to school today and the even more hyper than a typical Friday behavior that my classes displayed today. I don't really like Halloween but it has nothing to do with the devil. In fact, I've never fully understood the Christian's need to reject the holiday, yet attempt to offer a "safer" and "holier" alternative, much like christian rock music or christian movies. My distaste for Halloween stems from an incident that I was involved with my freshman year of high school.

I was an awkward kid with limited athletic ability, asthma, and no real discernible expertise so I struggled to find a place to fit within the rigid social structure that is high school. So October was approaching and this sophomore girl who I knew from church, Natalie Reeder, turned sixteen in late October and decided to throw a big party to celebrate the milestone. Her parents were very well to do and so this was not going to be your normal party; in fact, they had hired one of the Kiss FM DJ's to work the party. For some reason that I never fully understood, Natalie invited me to the party and informed me that it was a costume party, since her birthday fell close to Halloween. Needless to say, I was stoked as this was not only my first high school party, but I was a freshman invited to a sophomore party. This was 1994, a few years before George Lucas re-released the original Star Wars trilogy and there were not many people who were still big fans of the franchise; however, I was a huge Star Wars fan with a six foot tall cardboard cut out of Darth Vader in my room and numerous posters and t-shirts that related to the movies. Just a few years before, my best friend Paul and I spent the summer training to be Jedi knights by blindfolding each other and trying to block tennis balls with wiffle ball bats. I wanted to make an impression at this party, so I found a full Darth Vader costume to wear, just sure that all the older girls would fall for me, because really, who can resist the power of the dark side? So I wore this costume, complete with the mask, chest piece and a cape.

My mother had to drive me to the Reeder's house in a gated community and she dropped me off with my lightsaber in hand. As I was escorted into the backyard by Natalie's mother, I started to think my plan might have backfired because it didn't appear that anyone else was wearing a costume, or if they did, they all decided to dress like cool high school kids. My nightmare was confirmed when I reached the backyard and heard laughter coming from all around because, to my dismay, I was the only one in full costume. Natalie came up and thanked me for coming and she said she liked my costume, but I could tell that she was suppressing her laughs. I didn't have the balls to confront her about the misinformation so I stuttered out some birthday greeting and handed her the gift I bought and then went back inside to call my mother. She wasn't even home yet but I left a message for her to come get me and then I went and sat out front on the curb to wait, completely humiliated. I was already self-conscience, as I'm sure all adolescents are, and this only added to my low self-esteem.

Here I am, 16 years later and this is incident is still what I think about, every October as Halloween approaches. Humiliation sticks with a person, much longer than praise does it seems. Looking back, I wish I would have had the confidence to just get out on the dance floor and be confident in myself and my super rad Darth Vader costume, but that wasn't me at 14. In a lot of ways, that's still not me at 30. We are suppose to love our neighbors as ourselves, but I often find it harder to love myself than to love my neighbor or even my enemy. Learning to love is difficult, but then again, I don't think it's suppose to be easy. I don't have the answers and I don't know how to get over my insecurities but I do know that finding a community that loves and supports me with all the messed up shit I carry around helps. And I know that everyone carries insecurities with them, no matter how bad ass they might appear to be. Hell, I bet even Darth Vader felt insecure at night as he laid in bed alone, at least I like to think he did. So I guess this Halloween, we should remember to encourage those we love and remind them that we love them just they way they are, because we are all struggling here.

Where shall we give

Things are still rocking and rolling here in the big ef-dub. Right now, we're looking at options on where we should invest money. As a community that doesn't spend money on a building or staff, it frees us up to give directly to those in need or causes that make a direct impact. Yet there's still the major challenge of "Where to give?" Locally? Globally? Those you know? The most desperate? Starving? Thirsty? Sex trafficking?

There's the distinct challenge of not just giving either. It's easy to tithe or cut a check. But what does it look like for a community to be involved with another community thousands of miles away? What does it look like when you may never meet them? How do you love people well in these situations? These are the challenges we must wrestle with and find actual answers for. We cannot be satisfied to do things as usual.

If you have any thoughts on the subject, feel free to leave a comment or show up this week to share your thoughts and ideas.

Results of the building committee

We put together a building committee recently to look at how we could maybe emulate what is "successful" in the churches around us. The committee brought forth five recommendations.

1. Steeples. All cool churches have a steeple. It says, "Hey! Are you lost? Well look for our steeple sticking up in the air and come on over. We probably aren't open, but once you get here, you'll see the times that we are open and you can come back then." So in light of this, the suggestion has been put forward that we should construct steeples on top of our houses. The city may find a zoning problem with this. But if so, we can then attempt to sue the city for religious discrimination or something provocative like that.

Other alternatives: "Prayer tower" and "prayer closet"

2. Stage. Living rooms don't do much to let you know who's in charge. So the committee recommends building a movable platform that can be moved to each meeting location. Stages allow the passive listeners know that it's their time to be quiet. If you want to talk, then take the stage. For additional emphasis, it would be beneficial if chairs could be set on the stage so as to provide an elevated place for the leaders at all times. This speaks metaphorically and literally to the leader's place in the church.

Other alternative: If not enough room for a stage, a throne will suffice.

3. Lights. Light racks. Light bars. Smart lights. Stage lighting. It's essential. Lasers are optional but preferred. We all learned that Jesus doesn't want us to hide our light under a bushel. We would be disobeying if we didn't invest in a good lighting system. There's enough darkness in the world, the church is here to light it up at any cost.

Other alternatives: Start our own lighting company and call it "Light of the World."

4. Baptistry. We have a good contingent of former Church of Christ folk and it would appear not having a good place to dunk people has led to a lack of evangelistic zeal. The committee recommends beginning construction on a pool. I recommend we extend the building to also include a hot tub at my place. (Preferably one that doubles as a time machine.) Regular baptistries are so outdated. Now, we're into multifunction. Therefore it would be a wise use of money to build the chlorinated cement ponds. This will increase our home values as well as provided a place to wash the sins off. (For us of the baptist tradition, we say this in the most metaphorical sense possible.)

Other alternatives: Steam sauna.

5. Multi-site. We could quickly triple the number of campuses (i.e. houses) in our community if we simply stayed home and broadcast our time together via the internet. Everyone's doing it so why don't we? No need to get out of bed. No need to bathe. Just turn on your webcam and we can do everything right there: talk about our week, read scripture, and pray without ever having to put pants on. You can shop for clothes, look at pornography, and engage in political debate all while simultaneously doing church! It's also eco-friendly as we save gas money. Plus we will then have the cool badge of claiming to be a multi-site church. Everyone wins.

Other alternatives: Broadcast services via chat roulette.

Connect

If you would like to plug in with us, feel free to contact me at reflectionmedia.john@gmail.com

You can join us on when we gather on a Sunday evening for dinner. Or come join us as we plug in at Cornerstone here in Fort Worth. There are lots of opportunities to serve and do whatever it is you are good at. You can also join us on Google Wave so you can see what all we're planning for our future gatherings.

So don't be shy. Give us a shout.