An update on giving

For those of us who work for churches and non profits, giving and finances are important topics. When you factor in that it's three days before 2009 and the current economic climate, it's no wonder I find myself almost in a daily conversation with a peer, friend, family member, or church member regarding the economy and its affect on churches in general, and Hillcrest in particular. Hillcrest currently operates on a fiscal year, so we won't really know how well we've done budget-wise until April or May, but what we do know about 2008 is that for Hillcresters, it was a very generous year, as Hillcrest has given over $500,000 in 2008. Granted our budget is less than that, but also some of that $500,000 was for projects and ministries outside of the budget (Backpack buddies and the South Africa trip come to mind). Even in the month of December, while giving to Hillcrest's general budget has been down slightly, when you factor in the amount given to the backpack program (which is some $8,000 or over 60 backpacks!) the weekly average is pretty much unchanged.

Certainly many non-profits and churches alike are wondering what 2009 holds and what charitable giving patterns will look like. I know we at Hillcrest wonder about the future holds too, but I try to keep in mind some of my own personal opinions on this matter:

• We can make giving a statement of faith. A recent Christianity Today (CT) report showed that only 21% of evangelicals tithe (give 10% of their income away), and while this is the largest number of a faith group that does tithe, it's still means only 1 in 5 families tithe. And this includes non-profits and other charities. Yikes.
• We can grow in our giving. The recent CT report also demonstrated that there is significant room to grow in giving, and that's just in evangelical homes. The dollar amounts are staggering, but American Evangelicals could tackle some real problems (clean water, education, homelessness) with those additional dollars.
• We can become more patterned in our giving. It's interesting that whenever there's economic woes (whether it's a sagging stock market or $4 a gallon gas) that giving is presumed to drop. What this means is that "Joe the giver" gives what's leftover at the end of the check. I am not writing that those enduring difficult circumstances ought to continue current giving patterns (if you have lost a job, for instance), but it is interesting that these market fluctuations affect our giving.

May we give generously, and sacrificially, during the good times as well as during the not so good times. Also, as an FYI, we hit 200 backpacks yesterday (Sunday) morning! This also means Hillcrest will be writing a check for 100 more backpacks (yes, 300 total) as part of our match. Good stuff.

Wrapping gifts

Last Wednesday evening a group from Hillcrest was wrapping gifts for the Children's Inn during their annual fundraiser. I thought it'd be fun to show some pictures from the evening as our gift wrappers got to wrap with some of the folks from KSFY's evening news team. You'll also notice Tarina and Riley got to participate, and they said it was a great time. Incidentally, I was ringing bells for the Army with Burke and Deena. It was so cold that we had two people each running a kettle and the third person was in ShopKo warming up!

Tarina and Phil Shreck wrapping a gift.

The crew wrapping some gifts.

Riley wrapping a gift.

Rick Warren is in the News

Rick Warren is all over the news. Ever since President-Elect Obama invited him to give the inauguration's invocation, Warren's been at the center of the news. It is interesting that to the extreme left, he's much too conservative and to the extreme right, he's much too liberal! The AP has a pretty fair piece on Warren here. Brian McLaren offers some additional insight regarding Warren here.

Regardless of one's opinion of Warren, you can't fault the guy for trying, leading, and advancing the cause of Christ in southern California, throughout America, and to the ends of the earth. You disagree with Warren's theology, perspective, opinions, methods, and even results. But what you can not argue is that he's did (and doing) something. Can every church or her leaders say the same thing?

The 10 Year Rule

I am currently reading Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Outliers and really enjoying it though to be fair Gladwell is one of my favorite authors and Blink and The Tipping Point are among my favorite books. In the book, Gladwell strips away how we normally understand why some people are successful (the typical answers being a person's talent, hard work, passion, etc) and points at some different, and really unexpected reasons.

Gladwell doesn't argue that successful people aren't talented, just that there is more going on with a successful person than just talent. For one Gladwell shares the 10,000 hour rule, or the 10 year rule (Seth Godin also blogs frequently about this). Gladwell unravels the success stories of bands like the Beatles and entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and found that they both had this rule in common. For Gates, by the time he dropped out of Harvard at the age of 21, he had already logged in 10,000 hours programming computers, which is incredible when you consider first, how rare computers were back in the late 60s and early 70s, and second, how even rarer that a young kid would have had access to those rare machines. For the Beatles, they got their time in with 10 years at joints in Hamburg, Germany, where they were forced to play for several hours in a row, for several days in a row, where they honed their craft, perfected their stage presence, and took the United States by storm as a battle tested and seasoned group.

Gladwell summarizes the 10,000 hour rule when he writes “researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours. The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert- in anything . . . no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery."

For most, success doesn't happen overnight. And for most, there's more going on than just talent, strengths, gifts, hard work, and perseverance. But think about the extensions of such a hypothesis- that to be good at something, or successful at something, you have to put in 10,000 hours. What might this rule look like in the following situations:

• in a marriage?
• in parenting? We often like to talk about quality time, but the 10,000 hour rule seems to imply that quantity time matters in gigs like parenting as well.
• in your job or career?
• in the life of a church? I am not saying that we give every program (or ministry for that matter) 10 years to prove itself, but if a church switched its overall vision or mission every few years, it may prove difficult to feel as if we're gaining any ground.

What other situations might this rule apply? And as with most rules, there are probably exceptions . . .

Tough questions

A week or two ago I was with some seminary students facilitating a discussion on finances in both their work within the church and also their personal finances. Towards the end of our time, we got to talking about missional churches and the work they are doing to serve their communities. The class knew some of Hillcrest's story and so it was fun to share some of how we got to where we are today, but it was also encouraging to see these seminarians and their current churches also wrestling with what serving their community looked like. One student expressed what almost every leader thinks (and says) as they make a move to serving their community: how do we help without enabling? This has rattled around in my brain for the better part of two weeks as I continue to think through this and other seemingly paradoxical questions, such as the following:

• How does one reconcile debt-free living (advocated by the guru Dave Ramsey) with the revolutionary teachings of Muhammad Yunus, the infamous banker to the poor who believes community redevelopment comes through micro-lending (in essence, debt)?
• How does one employ the work of Jeffrey Sachs, who argues that economies develop according to established patterns (and thus argues that some less than ideal working conditions may exist say in a textile company in a developing country such as Bangladesh while their economy develops) against the writings of those who argue that trade must be kept fair and thus insist on fair labor, good working conditions, etc?

These are just two of the difficult questions that inevitably lead churches away from simply serving to educating and advocating.

Re-reading Paul

I do not consider myself a Biblical scholar by any means. And for the past couple of months, my own time with the Scriptures (and reading in general) has been somewhat on the shelf as we've worked through Wes' feet issues (he did get his casts off yesterday- yeah!). But this past week I've been able to spend some time in Galatians, and am re-reading Paul in light of his perspective on what we might call 'good deeds'. The apostle Paul is obvioulsy infamous in his advance and defense of a gospel without works. Many of the verses I memorized growing up centered on this this theme (Ephesians 2:8, Romans 3:23, 5:12, 6:23, etc) and Paul often stresses the grace and 'freeness' that surround the gospel. In Galatians, Paul apparently resumes this theme by chastizing the Jewish folks for insisting that the gentile converts be circumcised per teh Jewish custom. He even admonishes Peter for his hypocrisy over his table fellowship. But later on in Galatians, Paul seems to make a new argument for the importance of good works in connection with the gospel. Consider the following:

• Galatians 5:6 "For in Christ Jesus neitehr circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; but faith working through love"
• 5:13 "for you were called to freedom, brethern; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another"
• 5:14 "you shall love your neighbor as yourself"
• 5:22-23 "the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control . . .
• 6:9-10 "let us not become weary in doing good, for in due time we will if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith".

Don't read what I'm not writing: I'm not arguing for a works-based salvation. But I do find it interesting, and challenging, that the man who we presume to be the ultimate defender of a works-less gospel also has a few things to say about the idea of works.

A night out

The pastors and wives went out for a pre-Christmas supper last night. Though we were without our fearless leader Doug (who's sick with pneumonia), we had a great time.

Christmas thoughts

Highlighting some good recent posts centering on Christmas:

• A Hillcrester sent this video to me that perfectly complements this past Sunday's teaching
• Pastor Richie's thoughts here
• Greg Boyd offers a balanced perspective here

Backpack update

In October of 2007, Hillcrest set a goal of 50 packbacks for the Food Bank's weekend backpack program. Hillcresters responded by supporting 110 backpacks. At $125 a pack, that came out to $13,750. Good stuff.

This past August, the Food Bank asked Hillcrest to sponsor 200 backpacks. An audacious goal, but one we were all challenged with. As of last week, Hillcresters had sponsored 132 backpacks. At $125 a pack, this comes out to $16,500. Very good stuff, especially when one considers the economic conditions.

This past Sunday, we were again challenged to do all we could to make the goal of 200 by year's end which you can read more about here. Don't want to give anything away, but this Sunday Hillcresters will be encouraged to see the progress made just in the past couple of days. Very, very good stuff.

The Red Kettle Tax

First, don't let the title of this post mislead you. I appreciate what the Salvation Army (hereafter referred to as 'the Army') does in local communities and understand the importance of the kettles to their overall fundraising campaign. My brothers-in-law have been ringing bells for the Army as long as I've known them and Hillcrest is even sending out some folks to ring bells on Wednesday nights in December. But for me, there are two inherent problems with the kettle drive:

• First, repeat trips to the same store. Say I go to Lewis Drug this evening to get stamps. There is a kettle there, I toss in my pocket change, the bell ringer says "Merry Christmas", and I get to go into the store. If I need to go to Lewis tomorrow, yesterday's visit is null and void. The bell ringer has inevitably changed, the new ringer knows nothing of my previous visit, so I feel the need to toss in some more change in order to get reenter Lewis.
• Second, trips to other stores with kettles. HyVee Grocery is across the street from Lewis. If I toss change into Lewis, and then head over to HyVee, that bell ringer knows nothing of my recent donation (short of an instanteneous text between bell ringers), and then there is the 'pressure' to toss change into HyVee's kettle. Soon, normal errands in Sioux Falls can take on a similar feeling as driving on Chicago's tollway, where one makes sure you have enough change to make it through the tolls!

So here's my suggestion (maybe the Army already does this, but if not, it might be worth a shot): sell a button dated with the year's holiday season (for instance, Christmas 2008) that one can wear on their coat or jacket. The button would cost more than what most people probably toss into buckets throughout the season, say $25, and the donor can freely enter stores of their choosing without having the hovering guilt of paying the holiday kettle tax! Who knows, the Army just might raise more funds as well . . .

Are you as generous in March?

Sioux Falls is a generous city. In fact, it got national notoriety a couple years ago for its generosity. During the holiday season, there is a lot of attention on the needs that exist in our community and the opportunities we have to meet those needs. Some of my previous posts detail some of these opportunities that exist in Sioux Falls. But this post concerns whether our generosity extends past the Christmas season. I was on the phone with one of our community partners last week. As we were talking about a recent project that we had been through together, the partner made the comment that they were receiving many different material offers from other partners. As our partner was discussing this infusion of holiday goodwill into their organization, the partner made the comment of 'where is the help in March'? The point of the comment was that while the parnter and organization were grateful for all of the assistance they were receiving between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they wondered aloud what it might look like if that help was distributed a little bit more evenly across all 12 months of the calendar. In March, it's not as popular to be generous. There are no Red Kettles, no Christmas specials, or intentional food drives. In March, most of us are honestly paying off Christmas and not in as generous of a mood. It's simply tougher to strike the generosity chord in March, or May, or July, even though the needs continue.

Followers of Jesus ought to understand all of this and work hard to be generous throughout the year, not just at Christmas time. Churches with strategies that seek to meet needs (and more importantly, address the problems that create the needs) throughout the year prove to be a good witness for Jesus.

Alternative Gift Giving

Today during morning services we learned of a couple of different ways we could give some different Christmas gifts this season. The first is the Backpack Program, which we continue to make a push for. Right now, we're about 55 packs short of our goal of 200. Each backpack costs $125 and goes to a child in Sioux Falls who otherwise would have no (or limited) food for the weekend. We heard from a counselor from Whittier Middle School describe this real need and learned that however many backpacks we sponsor at the end of the year that Hillcrest will match 1/2 that amount from our land funds. So, if we end up sponsoring 160 packs, Hillcrest will kick in 80 additional packs for a total of 240. If you're in the Sioux Falls area and interested in this opportunity, let me know.

We also heard of World Vision's gift catalog, which you can access here. This is a neat catalog which allows your gift giving to also meet real needs throughout the world. Last Christmas the pastoral staff pooled money we would have bought each other a gift with and instead bought a family a llama. This year my brother and I are going to do this instead of buying each other gifts. Wherever you're located, everyone can participate in this one. So consider some alternative gift-giving this Christmas.

Compassion Brokers

I've begun reading Shane Claiborne’s Becoming the Answer to our Prayers and it’s typical of Claiborne: gut-wrenching and convicting. The premise of the book is that we can answer many of the prayers that we pray, especially when it comes to matters of injustice. Claiborne writes that “We worry about how to protect ourselves from them (the poor) while at the same time feeling guilty for our complicity in their poverty. So we give to charities. And charities become the brokers for our compassion toward the poor.” The last statement, brokers for the poor, made me pause. I agree that many churches and followers of Jesus, myself included, outsource compassion. We prefer to let other groups and organizations do the heavy lifting while we observe like a spectator and cheer on their efforts, giving money and mental energy to their good work. Yet we miss out on opportunities to take part in processes that may make the overall system better. Clairbone then goes onto compare our society to a sort of high school lunchroom where we all have our tables carved out and never dare to sit with people from other tables, especially those from so called ‘lower’ tables.

For me, this is what makes the Genesis Project appealing in that it gives people like myself a set up opportunity to meet and engage with people from a different socio-economic setting than me. While this method still requires the work of a ‘broker’ (in this case the Community Outreach), at least what is being brokered is a relationship and a learning opportunity (for both parties) and not simply another transfer of goods or services. We had a good group attend the Genesis training this past Wednesday night and I am excited to see who makes the leap to be part of the mentoring group. It will be interesting to hear what stories begin to emerge from a little bit riskier type of ministry, but also a little bit more fulfilling type of ministry as well.

A Best Buy of Love

At a recent meeting, Pastor Richie had a great phrase when describing the various Christmas-related opportunites that Hillcresters have this holiday season- he called it "a Best Buy of Love"! How great! His point is that when you go into Best Buy looking to purchase a TV, you like the fact that they have 60 different flat screens from which to choose from. If they only had one or two, you'd call that a garage sale! So the fact that Best Buy offers many TVs makes your decision perhaps a bit more difficult but also more fulfilling (I had 60 TVs to choose from, but when I decide to buy one, I am all in).



At Hillcrest, the holidays can feel a bit like that. We're offering lots of great things to be a part of, from continuing to purchase backpacks for Sioux Falls' hungriest students to particpating with a local Angel Tree project, to ringing bells for the Salvation Army, wrapping gifts at the Empire Mall for Children's Inn, or particpating with Sioux Falls Cares. The goal isn't to do all of them or feel like just because the church is doing it, then I have to do it. You don't buy all 60 TVs at Best Buy, you buy one, or perhaps two. The goal is to offer options and then choose one or two that best fit who you are and what God is up to in your life.



Over at the Point, one of Sioux Falls' newer church plants, they too provide a bunch of holiday options, encouraging their folks to do one thing and give to one thing. I like that as it removes the guilt from feeling like you have to do everything and people can maximize their impact.

If you build it . . .

One of the first movies I can remember seeing in the theatre was Field of Dreams. A classic movie by any definition with unforgettable lines- none more memorable than "if you build it, people will come". I don't want to necessarily tackle the notion on whether churches ought to build new buildings or not, but how churches can utilize their facility as a blessing to the community and specifically their multi-purpose buildings and/or gymnasiums.

At Hillcrest, we've been all over the map with this issue. 3 years ago, we were renting out our Family Life Center often to sports teams, non profits, and other groups. We were cheap and available but unfortunately had no purpose or system to our efforts. The result was often a building that was double booked and created confusion and anxiety for the people and the groups using our facility. 2 years ago we overcorrected this easy policy with a much stricter policy that significantly raised the fees and added an elaborate system complete with request forms and lease agreements. We lowered the double booking and the axiety, but still had no purpose. Our facility thus sat empty most nights and while we were embarking on an effort to love our neighbors and community, our message when it came to our facility was don't bother us. On Tuesday night our Leadership Council adopted a policy that resembles the one from three years ago (with much lower fees) but now has a purpose behind it in that we want to bless our neighbors with our building. We want families across the street to use it for a graduation open house, for the dad in the neighborhood to use it for his son's basketball practice, and for the local boy scouts pack to use it for their meetings. We're paying the costs associated with running the building so why not use it?

Sioux Falls Cares

A KELO story on a neat organization among the many that are doing good this Christmas season. Hillcrest will participate with Sioux Falls cares Wednesday, December 10th.

The church's role in raising better kids- part 2

Dr. Meeker's ends her book Boys Should Be Boys with ten tips for making sure you get it right. While I am little leery on such lists, Dr. Meeker's advice is solid. Tip 5, teach him to serve, especially caught my attention: "boys who do this (serve) learn patience and compassion. They lose false pride, but gain real humility. They learn that love is work, but that it is worth loving without expecting a reward. They learn a deeper, more mature sense of themselves, of others, and of the world. They talk less about themselves and ask more questions of the world. They look outward to see what needs repair and go about ways to bring change. Men who serve become better husbands and fathers because they have experienced the satisfaction that comes only through placing another's needs before their own" (235).

Of the 10 tips Meeker offers, churches seem best poised to offer their assistance here. And while I am certainly not a parenting expert, the few experiences I've had my 5 year old with me on a Wednesday Night have confirmed the uniqueness that happens when we serve others.

Thanksgiving

Much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving starting with my wonderful family! It's hard to believe that Tarina and I will have been married 10 years in August and that our oldest son is 5, but it's been an incredible journey. We'll be in Fargo this weekend celebrating with the Stroh family, which will be lots of fun (our boys have the weekend planned with Madagascar 2, a trip to the mall for Dinoland, and of course McDonald's). I am incredibly thankful for my mom and dad, my siblings and their spouses, and now two new nephews. We'll spend Christmas with Tarina's family and I too am very thankful for each of them.

Sioux Falls Furniture Mission

The Argus has a good and quick article on the Furniture Mission, a great organization that delivers gently-used furniture to folks who need it. The Furniture Mission is one of Hillcrest's Wednesday night partners and a great volunteer opportunity.

Christian Telemarketing?

Following up on yesterday's post, Christian telemarketing is an interesting phenomenon. Each week at Hillcrest we get several calls from Christian telemarketers about a host of products and services. Part of Christian telemarketing (and all telemarketing, for that matter) makes sense, at least on the surface. Most likely, Church A has bought an item from the caller before, and they are only trying to inform the customer of their newest product. In some ways, it's a form (albeit not a good one) of permission based marketing.

But in an era where millions of consumers have registered their phone numbers to avoid such tactics, one would think Christian publishers (and similar companies) would be moving away from telemarketing as a way to move their products and instead try one of these tactics:

• Create a remarkable product- this isn't to rip on existing products, most of which are probably good, but to point out the fact that remarkable products really do not need telemarketers to sell them. Two examples would be Rob Bell's Nooma videos and the more dated Experiencing God curriculum, both of which have done (or did) well and both of which I can't remember receiving one call over.
• Solve a problem- most telemarketing calls offer short term fixes (plug this program to train parents of teens) rather than solving holistic problems (how does this program fit into one's overall ministry to parents of teens?). One good holistic problem that faces most churches is the issue of security and children's ministries- how do we all we can to insure the safety of our kids? Group publishing solved the problem by creating a service that allows churches low cost background checks on potential volunteers as well as partnered with a national insurance agency that provides tips and information on other security issues. Because Group has solved a problem for me, I'm more inclined to let them interrupt my life (though Group does this very infrequently, which is another plus).
• Consolidate- my bias is that there are too many Christian companies selling too many products that are too similar. What might happen if there were fewer companies that offered fewer, but better, products? There might be less interruption and more of a relationship between churches and companies.
  

These are just a couple suggestions, but as I wrote yesterday, the overarching question might be how churches move away from content-based programming as a whole altogether. In fact, the company that helps churches free their people from content-based groups and studies, might actually 'win' in the long run, though in the short term it might seem counter-intuitive.

The church's role in raising better kids

I would bet that one of the questions on most parents' minds, and especially those that attend churches such as Hillcrest, is how can I raise 'good' children (we'll resist the temptation to define 'good' here). Sensing this, Christian publishers have produced several church-based products and programs to answer this overriding question. In order to get the word out about these programs, these publishers follow a typical telemarketing campaign utilizing this thought process (we just a call this morning that followed this script):

• church-going parents want to raise good children
• church going parents look to the church for help in this area
• if we want better children, we need better parents
• if we want better parents, we need better to educate parents better
• to better educate, we need to implement this ABC church-based program
• to implement this ABC church based program, we then call churches and sell the program by dangling a 30 day risk-free trial
• churches run the program and invite parents
• interested parents then sign up for the program, but now must find something for their kids
• churches then create either a kid program or offer to babysit kids
• program runs with parents attending program and kids attending their alternative

One of my observations concerns the thought process that in order to produce a better parent, I need to get them to attend a church-based program. There is a counter-argument that if a parent wanted to raise better kids, they could bypass the program and thus spend that time they would spend at the program and spend it with their children (the same is also true for the children, that if we want to raise better children, we can bypass many of the activities that parents enroll their children in (sports, music, etc) and simply spend more time with them); see Dr. Meeker's new book for more on this argument.

In an era where families are busier than ever, and where the busyness may not be producing the results we desire, churches may need to rethink approaches that take up a families' time and only deliver content. If Dr Meeker's hypothesis is correct (or at least some of it is), churches may need to actually scale back on content-based programs in order to provide opportunities for families to spend time together.

Incidentally, Hillcrest's 180 Student Ministries has done such a thing once a month this fall, canceling their Student Ministries program for 'family night'. In September they played at a park, last month they had an in-house game night, and last night went bowling together.

Keeping score

This morning Pastor Doug concluded Hillcrest's three month Exodus series with a check on how we're doing as a church as we continue to pursue the idea of loving God and loving others. Reggie McNeal's The Present Future talks about how churches will need to rethink how they keep score, or how they know how well they are doing, instead of the traditional metrics of Sunday morning attendance and weekly monies given to the general offering. In recapping where we've been the last few months, Pastor Doug shared the following metrics:

• Hillcrest has given away over $139,000 outside its walls in 2008. That's about $450 per Hillcrester (one of the gifts was 60 laptops to Cleveland Elementary School, pictured above).
• Part of that amount includes over $15,000 for the Food Bank's backpack program, or enough food for 133 Sioux Falls children.
• Over 140 Hillcresters paricipate in a Wednesday Night Service in an average month.
• Hillcresters read with 33 Cleveland Elementary students on a weekly basis (covering 11 classrooms) and mentor 12 additional students.

We have a ways to go yet, and are far short on some of our goals, but we were reminded today that we are headed in a good direction.

A resource for tough times

This update article from the Argus shares how the Genesis Project just got United Way funding. The United Way's funds will help resource a full-time casework for the Community Outreach as well as provide matching funds for churches that decide to join the project (in my opinion, the United Way also adds considerable credibility to the project as well). As blogged about earlier, Hillcrest is joining this project and will be going public during Sunday's services with a goal for how many families we desire to partner with.

The additional funding for the new project probably couldn't come at a better time as Sioux Falls may be experiencing some of the ripples of the national economic slowdown. In this week's news alone, Sioux Falls learned of major layoffs at Citibank and additional layoffs at Lodgenet. While the impact to Sioux Falls workers is not yet known, the locals are getting jittery. I know of several folks who are nervous about their jobs, experiencing a cut back in hours, and/or looking for new or additonal employment.

We had one prayer request today from someone who wondered how the churches would deal with a probable increase in the needs that their people (and those outside their church) will have. While the Genesis Project is one such answer, the ironic reality could be that in a time such as this when needs will be on the rise, charitable donations could plateau or drop. To put it in economic terms, we could see a scarcity in available resources for people, as the demand for assistance increases while the supply of resources available to meet those needs remains static or contracts.

Homelessness in Sioux Falls

A great video here passed to me by our friends with the Sioux Falls Homelessness Coalition. One comment and one question:

• First, it was good to see many of the organizations we're partnering with were featured in the video (St Francis House, Community Outreach, Food Bank, etc)
• Second, what is the church's role in stamping out homelessness in Sioux Falls?

The advocacy and organization issues (stages 4 and 5) seem to be much more difficult to answer.

Could Sarah Palin pastor a church?

By now, Sarah Palin's impact on the 2008 election is well documented and well covered, includign even a piece in today's Argus Leader. One of the more interesting stories of the 2008 election was Sarah Palin's instant ability to 'energize the base', injecting passion and energy into many social conservatives who rank abortion and marriage amendments as two of their most important issues, and ones where John McCain had failed to sell the base on his position(s). What I find to be somewhat ironic is while Palin may have enegized the base, if she were to seek a leadership position in the churches whose members comprise some of the GOP base, she may find the path more difficult than the one to the White House. This article from a couple months ago reveals the struggle one magazine, and one denomination, continue to experience.

In Tickle's book The Great Emergence, she writes that the role of women, and the changing perceptions surrounding that role, seem to define significant shifts within human history. She writes "we should note as well that the re-definition of traditionally female roles across all the generations was, and still is, a principal contributor to shredding of the cable and the exposing of its parts."

As for the current shift that we are experiencing, the re-definition of traditional female roles began with World War 2 women working outside the home while their husbands were away at war and continues today with women making up as high a percentage of the American workforce as they ever have, leading to spinoff debates such as the 'working mom' vs. the 'stay at home mom'.

Where would the church fit in?

This article from today's Argus represents a stage 4 advocacy issue. The question would be how or where would the church fit in with this proposal to advocate for the poor?

The Church and the Poor

I came across this article from our paper over the weekend about the church, the gospel, and the connection to the poor. The piece is well-written in its articulation about the clear connection that ought to exist between followers of Jesus and those who are poor. The issue is gaining momentum throughout the American church, as Leadership Journal and Outreach Magazine both featured the issue in their most recent publications. I am sure by now that more and more followers of Jesus are being convinced of the importance of connecting the gospel with those are most under-resourced, whether in our own communities or throughout the world; in other words, there don't seem to be that many 'why' questions when it comes to the gospel and poverty. There are, however, many 'how' questions, in terms of what churches ought to be doing and how they go about accomplishing it.

A couple of weeks ago I was introduced to a helpful model that brings clarity to the 'how' questions churches seeking to connect with the poor are asking. The model consists of five stages, with stage one being the easiest and also the least impactful and rising in terms of both difficulty and impact until you reach stage five:

• Referral (Stage 1): most churches do well here. How this practically works is someone either calls the church or physically drops in with a need, and church staff or people know where to refer them to: a mission, a thrift store, a food pantry, a soup kitchen. A person's needs are met, we've done something to help, but the impact is fairly minimal. For most of my life, this is what we've always done in the churches that I've been a part of.
• Direct Service (Stage 2): a bit more difficult and a bit more impactful, churches here actually serve the people with the needs. This includes much of what we do on a Wednesday night and also anytime a church participates in serving at a soup kitchen, a thrift store, a mission, etc. It's a bit more challenging and a little more impactful, but still not much being done in terms of breaking the cycle of generational poverty.

After stage, the progress becomes much more difficult, but also much more impacting. Most churches stop at stage two whereas the current movement invites churches to continue to explore the remaining three stages:

• Education (Stage 3): this is where a church or a group from the church participates in the education process of someone who is poor. When you read Ruby Payne you understand that in order for people to make it out of generational poverty, they need to have relationships with people from the middle class in order to learn the 'rules' that we take for granted (things like meal planning, basic parenting, budgeting, the ins and out of the educational system, etc). In stage 3, churches become the mentor for the working poor attempting to help provide some education to help break this cycle. In Sioux Falls, one such initiative is the Genesis Project, led by the Community Outreach, which Hillcrest will begin participating in next month.
• Advocacy (Stage 4): here the church begins to systematically address issues connected with the working poor, whether its transportation (a big issue in Sioux Falls as public transit ends at 7 or 7:30 leaving people without public transit for late shift jobs), housing, etc.
• Organizing and development (stage 5): where the church is a centerpiece along with the school and other service agencies to holistically address the needs of the poor within a community.

The 'how' questions will continue to persist but this model at least gives churches a platform to consider for how to live out the truths of the gospel.

How do you pick a church?

At first take this is a question I'll admit I have very litte experience with as I'm not sure I've really ever 'picked' a church being that I've received a check from a church in some fashion for about 10 years. But being at Hillcrest for the last 6 years and hearing the testimonies of many people wanting to join Hillcrest as members, I'm struck at the varied reasons for why people decide to join a church:

• Friendliness- some folks pick a church because it's friendly; Hillcrest for the most is a pretty friendly church and some will stick simply because of a welcoming and inviting environment.
• Denomination- this is fairly typical, though less common now, for people to pick a church in the same denomination that they grew up in.
• Programs- certainly some will pick a church because of the programs it offers such as a youth ministry, a children's ministry, Sunday School, AWANA, Bible studies, etc.
• Personnel- some will choose a church because of the Sunday morning personnel, whether that's the senior pastor (he preaches a good message), the worship team (it's contemporary, it's traditional, it's blended, etc), etc.

This past Tuesday we heard testimonies from 4 people wanting to join Hillcrest as members, and for the first time that I can remember, none of them gave one of the four reasons mentioned above as their reason for membership. Instead, each person identified wanting to join Hillcrest as a member because of our mission to love God and to love other people. For me, this is an encouraging trend, for it suggests that the people who choose to worship and stay at Hillcrest do so for her mission abover her programs or personnel. For me, this is encouraging because one of our core values of service to the community is being picked up by our people, and not just something that we have on a piece of paper or that only our leaders believe.

"Not Yet"

Seth Godin has a new book out called Tribes. Couple of great thoughts from it:

• The secret of being wrong isn’t to avoid bring wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn’t fatal.
• The largest enemy of change and leadership isn’t a “no”. It’s a ”not yet”. “Not yet” is the safest, easiest way to forestall change. “Not yet” gives the status quo a chance to regroup and put off the inevitable for just awhile longer. Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late. By the time you realize that your corner of the world is ready for an innovation, it’s almost certainly too late. It’s definitely not too early. There’s a small price for being too early, but a huge penalty for being too late. The longer you wait to launch an innovation, the less your effort is worth.
  

I enjoy both statements, but I certainly resonate with the last one. Last year as we were kicking around the idea of the Wednesday Night Service, some of the initial feedback we got from focus groups was this “not yet” kind of thinking. Some of the fears and concerns included

• the absence of a midweek children’s programming and the related fear of whether or not kids could truly benefit from the experience of serving
• the risk of going too fast and trying to temper the movement with a hybrid model of once a month or every other week
• the concern that people might be too tired from the day’s work or home life to gear up and serve others; the beauty of the program, though, is that it puts participation in the hands of the participant, whereas with a small group or a kids program, you almost had to attend for the program truly depended on you. You can now miss a Wednesday night, jump back in the next week, and not miss a beat.
• Whether we we’re too early or there would be enough to do that would fit our very constrained time frame of Wednesday nights; (I honestly was a bit concerned with this as well, but in fact we have found that there is more to do than our group could ever pull off; we’ve had to become choosier about the opportunities we do participate in.)
  

This isn’t to minimize the importance of those thinkers and church people who are more realistic or pragmatic in their thinking and processing. Those folks sharpened and strengthened Wednesday Nights. But if Hillcrest would have waited, if we would have listened to the “not yets”, we probably wouldn’t be where we are at today. And we probably wouldn’t have received emails like this one:

I am very thankful for your forethought in coming up with this idea of taking the church outside the walls. I’m thankful for the Service opportunities you line up each week. I’m thankful for the opportunity you’ve given me to get involved in the church & to meet other Hillcresters in comfortable settings. (I’m pretty sure if we were just having a Service in the Church, I wouldn’t be there.) I’m thankful to be a part of a congregation that I believe does things to glorify God & not just to make ourselves look or feel good! I’m thankful for the opportunity to volunteer & to make a difference in my community. I’ve always gotten much more fulfillment from volunteering than I get from a day at work.

Backpack Buddies

Hillcrest is pretty involved with this program, and the Argus Leader once again named it as their focus charity for the 2008 holiday season; check out the article here.

Hillcrest also serves with this program about once a month, and we do it next this Wednesday, November 19th. Let me know if you're interested.

Can't wait til Wednesday

I voted earlier today, and now that I have, I can't wait until tomorrow because then this will all be over. In the elections of 2000 and 2004 I was glued to network and cable television burning hours in front of the tube and anxiously awaiting the results as intense as when I follow my fantasy football team online on Sundays! But tonight, I doubt I will watch little if any television, preferring to find out the result tomorrow and then getting on with life. Part of what has made this election season so disappointing for me, other than the lack of a good candidate, is what it has revealed in those of us who claim to follow Jesus, both those Christians on the right and the left. I've gotten many emails, forwards, and casual conversations from those on the right who are downright scared of the opposite party's candidate. Their fear leads them to make questionable (and even absurd) claims based on rumor rather than fact (Obama is a Muslim or Obama is the anti-christ) and leaves them searching the scriptures for obscure connections between the Bible's book of Revelation and this election (seriously, just got an email this afternoon). Fearing an Obama presidency, some of these folks make dark predictions such as the loss of religious freedom, more incidences of abortion, more legislative judges, and an overall loss of the judeo-christian morals that they believe the country was founded upon.

The pundits and the blogs for the Christian left, though, also leave me discouraged because their fervor and passion is essentially the same as the right's, though it is the same fervor and passion they dislike about the Christian right. While in 2000 and 2004 one could argue that Bush was the evangelical choice, in 2008 one could argue that Obama is now the evangelical choice, at least among younger evangelicals. One can get the sense that an Obama presidency will save our country from its current downward through seemingly inconsistent policies such as slashing taxes for middle and lower income brackets while also increasing government spending with new programs such increased health care.

Few would argue that our country, and our world, has serious issues and problems that need addressing- too many to indicate in a post- economic issues, ecological issues, social issues, justice issues, human rights issues. I think as Christians we're misguided if we believe that a candidate or a party is going to usher in God's kingdom or speed up God's will. If we were to practice some of what Jesus left for us in the New Testament, might we (and not a party or a government) have greater control or influence when it came to these issues that are so important to us? What if all of us who followed Christ . . .

• tithed? At a church the size of Hillcrest's, we'd almost double our budget. Being free of debt, we'd have more to give away to orphans and widows, to those that needed it. And when you multiply that across all churches, now you're talking about funds that could do some serious damage (health care? homelessness? poverty? these issues would be within reach with the tithes of the saints).
• volunteered outside of our churches? Imagine the church helping trouble schools improve their reading and math scores. Imagine the church providing mentors for children who have no other steady adult influences in their lives. Imagine the church providing job training, financial training, and parental training out of a relationship with people.

Well, that's enough for now. Hopefully, you voted. And hopefully, if we follow Jesus, we will continue to seek his kingdom first, regardless of who runs our governmental kingdoms.

Halloween? Fall Festival? Harvest Party?

I came across this article (free registration required to read the article) from my hometown newspaper, The Fargo Forum, regarding some families' decision not to participate in Halloween. This continues to be one of those 'hot topics' within Christian circles, as some families choose to participate in the festivities while others opt to abstain from the tricks and the treats. Ever since I've been in paid church ministry, this has been an issue I haven't been able to get away from either. As a youth pastor, I was encouraged not to have Halloween parties or events. So we'd call them harvest parties or fall festivals. There were a couple of problems with this as 1) teenagers don't normally celebrate fall festivals and 2) with the costumes and the candy, our fall festivals didn't look much different than the 'pagan' Halloween parties, with their candy and costumes. If families like the ones in this article abstain from anything Halloween related, including church-sponsored candy and games, I can respect (though disagree with) their stance. But too often we in church like what the world is doing (who doesn't like getting some candy or seeing little kids dressed up?!?) but are uncomfortable with the origins, so we steal the candy and the costumes and then 'christianize' it by calling it a festival or asking that no scary costumes enter our Family Life Center.



I will not argue that the events surrounding Halloween have 'pagan' roots. Early on, the Church tried to redeem the holdiay with a celebration on November 1 called All Saints Day (though few have probably heard of it unless you're Catholic). Even more interesting, though, is how many of the holidays that Christians do hold sacred, including Christmas and Easter, have pagan roots as well. Ever wonder why Easter doesn't have a set Sunday, like Christmas or Halloween? Obvioulsy the dates that Jesus died and rose from the dead are set in history, so why does Easter move around? It's because it's based off the moon's movement, and is a certain number of Sundays after a certain moon movement. Jesus most likely was not literally born on December 25th. And that doesn't take into account other traditions such as trees, lights, gifts, bunnies, and chocolate. So why stands like the one this family takes might be commendable, do we apply the same reasoning or logic to other celebrations?

Video killed the radio pledge drive

Tis the season for a nonprofit radio station that is in the midst of its annual pledge drive. I listen to this station occasionally, but when the pledge drive is in full effect, it follows a now predictable pattern:

Day 1- Celebration- here we celebrate the good the station has done (I'm very cool with this; in fact, on day 1 the station shared a story of how a song played saved someone's life- very cool)

Day 2- Anticipation- here we talk about excited we are at the upcoming year and all of the good things that are planned (again, I'm cool with this as well- it's ok to share what we're looking forward to)

Days 3-4- Anxiety- here is where anxiety to take center stage as the station finds itself behind the percentage needed for full funding (we compare to last year, compare to other markets, etc)

Days 5+- Panic- the longer the pledge drive goes, the more panic (and consequently guilt) the listener can expect to endure. Now, the station finds itself way behind whatever benchmarks of funding it uses and is using whatever appeals it can to generate cash (just this morning hearing an email from a listener who couldn't imagine life without this station's morning show).

After panic, threats begin to emerge as the station's management needs to consider which markets it might have to shut down. Honestly, I'm not sure if any markets have ever been shut down, but I know our local market has often fallen short of full funding and hasn't been shut down.

Full disclosure: I've given to this station in the past but stopped when the tactics began to emerge in the later days of their fund drives. As someone who works with finances and a non profit, the line between motivation and manipulation is very fine indeed, though I am not suggesting manipulation in the case of the station. I think most human beings know that fear is a motivator, but among the tools of a fundraiser, is one that ought rarely to be used.

As always, Seth Godin posts about this topic better here

Hillcrest in the News

We got the opportunity to meet with Senator Tim Johnson yesterday who came by Hillcrest to follow up on naming the church as an angel in adoption. Two of the families Hillcrest has supported with their adoptions were able to share their sotries. It was a fun morning! You can check out the various stories here:

• KDLT
• KELO
• KSFY

View from the balcony

In our equipping leaders group yesterday morning we discussed the analogy of the balcony in which leaders are charged with the task of getting the bigger perspective from the balcony rather than just making decisions from the day to day responsibilities of the floor. As we were discussing this important and challenging work of leadership, we landed on the reality that at least when it comes to ministry or church work there are probably two balconies leaders need to access. The first is the balcony of your local church or faith community- this community will have its unique story or 'dna' regardless of whatever else is happening culturally. Leaders that can access this balcony view are better and more informed leaders; people also appreciate this informed leadership much more! The second is the balcony of the Big Church, or the kingdom, or the world, or whatever you want to call it. Without the larger perspective of what God seems to be up to in his world, we will mislead our churches and ourselves. Years ago the 'experiencing God' series raised this idea in a personal way for many people- what does Jesus seem to be doing and how can you join the movement? Now, we're essentially asking the same question and applying it to the faith communities throughout the world- what does Jesus seem to be doing throughout the world and how can we join the movement? The question seems simple enough but unfortuantely confusion can abound. One glance at a Christian bookstore or an online sampling of church books from Amazon or a reading of blogs from Christian leaders reveal several different, and at least at the surface contradictory, movements. Issues such as the role of women, the work of the spirit, the authority of Scripture, the ideas of free will and election, what works the church ought to do (internal vs external), the uses of church finances, and other issues such as these might be pointing at some bigger shifts. I'm interested in learning more about this balcony perspective and what part Hillcrest will play in it in the future.

Jim and Casper go to Church

I just got done reading Jim and Casper Go to Church and the heart of the book is basically ‘is this what Jesus told you guys to do?’ A former pastor and an athesit visit over 12 different churches- different in style, in mission, in subculture, etc- and then the former pastor records the athiest's perspectives. An interesting theme is how different these churches are, and yet all claim to follow the same guy. Among some of what I took from the book:

• the offering seems to be always self-serving unless connected to a church's visible outside work in the community
• churches that spend significant monies on facilities and other worship resources (lights, equipment, etc) communicate the importance of the facility (whether intentional or not) and those resources
• there is a disconnect between some of the songs that we sing and the context that we sing them in (i.e. when we sing that 'this world has nothing for me' when our context might communicate otherwise)
• for the most part, the authors were not greeted at the churches with the exception of those who were 'supposed' to greet- greeters, ushers, and pastors (which, for the record, didn't 'count' for Casper). At the couple of churches where people did spontaneously greet them, it made quite the impact.
• Finally, for Casper, what he most wanted to see (and to know) was how a church's faith translated into a connection with a hurting outside world. Casper was most taken by churches who seem to convert faith into action.

Saving the World at Church

Last week I was at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, which was a really really good conference, since I had some plane time to and from Atlanta I've been able to read some new books as well. I hope to record my notes from the books and the conference over the next few days so I don’t lose some of that valuable information. One of the books that I am almost done with Tim Sanders’ Saving the World at Work, a pretty interesting read on how the world has fundamentally changed to business and corporations focusing on doing better for their environments- everything from becoming more green, to using fair trade products, to promoting and allowing employees to volunteer time and talents to community groups and non profits that they are excited about. The argument rests on the fact that the new generation of worker, Sanders calls it the ThemGen, is very interested not in just making a paycheck but also in making an impact. He tells of how companies like a Starbucks can often attract better talented people for less money because of the strength of their community and societal involvement and initiatives. He writes of how behemoths like Wal Mart have had to become more eco-friendly in their business practices to remain competitive and profitable. He shares of how employees from companies such as Timerland, the boot maker, are further enhancing their already generous corporate cultures from profound acts such as 200 employees donating their Timerland boots to a community organizer in post-Katrina New Orleans. It shouldn’t be surprising that some of the same movements we see happening in church- a desire to get involved, to help people, to contribute positively to our communities- are also taking root in the business world. If all truth is God’s truth, then the truths the church is experiencing ought to be showing up outside of the church as well. Fortunately, churches are a little closer to the learning curve on this one.

One of the more interesting aspects of the book for me personally is the emphasis on being more cognizant of one’s impact on the planet. While Hillcrest has a ways to go in this regard, we’ve taken one simple step at being friendlier to our planet. Each Wednesday during the school year we serve a meal before the night’s festivities begin as a convenience for people and families. We’ve typically used to Styrofoam plates and plasticware for this meal, throwing out 3-4 bags of trash each meal (I hate to wonder what damage we’ve done in the last couple of years). A couple of Hillcresters didn’t think this was right and got working on a solution. They reasoned that since we have a commercial dishwasher and we have plates and silverware in our ktichen, why not wash dishes every night (I know, so simple, it's brilliant!). They recruited a team, committed to doing it, and now we have less than a bag of trash each week. A baby step, but a great step nonetheless. Now they are looking at how we can be better at recycling. Before reading the book, ideas such as this were good, but only from a volunteer perspective (they have a cause, want to do something, etc). After reading the book, I understand even more the strategic importance these and other ideas like them can have.

Random Thoughts on Traffic

I just finished the book Traffic. It's a departure from the books I usually read, but it was a good psychological/sociological survey of why behave the way we do behind the wheel of a car. Some of the more interesting findings:

• Despite the marketing that says advertise, 85% of the people killed in accidents in construction zones are drivers; 15% are construction workers.
• You have roughly a 1 in 100 chance of dying in a fatal car crash over a lifetime of driving of 50 years (feeling lucky?!?)
• There is a strong correlation between a country's GDP and the number of fatalties on their road- the higher the GDP, the lower the number of fatalities. Interestingly, an even better predictor is the amount of corruption in a country. The more corrupt a country is, the more fatalities that occur on their roads.
• Men are riskier drivers then women, but they drive safer when a woman is a passenger.
• You are 134 times more likely to be killed in traffic at 3 AM on Sunday morning than you would be driving at 10 AM on Sunday morning.
• Since the 1960s (when the State Department first began tracking the data), roughly 5,000 Americans have been killed as a result of terrorism. Each year in the US, an average of 40,000 people are killed on our roads (more are killed each month than in 9/11). Makes you wonder if we need a Department of Homeland Traffic Safety.

Fiscally responsible giving

I read 1 Corinthians 8 this morning and it opens with Paul commending the Macedonians for their sacrificial giving, even giving beyond their ability and how they begged to be able to financially participate in Paul’s ministry. As is obvious news by now, it was a rough financial week for America, with stocks dropping, a government bailout out to the tune of $700 billion dollars, and some fearing the worst may yet to come. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on charitable giving, and especially if we notice anything at Hillcrest. Our giving at Hillcrest for 2008 has overall been pretty strong; we will need to see whaf effects the sour economy is having on main street, as the pundits call it, will effect churches like ours. Giving is always an interesting and sometimes touchy subject for churches, as one of people’s perceptions about church is that 'they just want my money'. To further complicate the issue, some churches contribute to this image by either mishandling funds, paying church leaders excessive amounts, or promising prosperity to generous benefactors.

When money does get tight, the temptation is to lower one's giving. Certainly, that would be tops on what some might 'disposable income'. And yet as Paul writes in this chapter of the Macedonains, when times were tight, it seems like giving increased. They were so certain that their giving was instrumental to Paul's ministry and the spread of the gospel. I would think we should expect some dips in giving during times like this. Fear is a powerful motivator and a force that leaves people powerless. But as churches continue to connect the gospel with tangible causes outside of themselves, I would suspect that giving to these churches should sustain. I suppose we will see if that holds true, bur regardless, as followers of the Christ, the most fiscally responsible thing you can do is to continue to give.

Click here for a good look at the economic crisis from a theological perspective.

Angels in Adoption

An article from the Argus Leader detailing South Dakota's Angels in Adoptions. We got to meet the incredible people in this story and they truly are angels. Very cool.

Acquiring values

Today in my equipping leaders material we again returned to what’s most important to us. In the exercise, we’re first asked to identify some of our favorite biblical texts that we have learned from. I can’t help but think of how texts like John 3:17 (save and not condemn) and 2 Peter 3:9 (patient, wanting none to perish) have shifted my understanding from God as a vengeful God who is the ultimate referee seeking to penalize people to God as a benevolent God who truly loves people, all people, and desires for all to have a relationship with him. I am reminded of something we often overlook in a passage like Romans 5, where we hold onto the idea that sin entered the world through one man, Adam, but then seem to become exclusive or protective of the idea that salvation also entered the world through one man, Jesus. Why is that at times we can argue guilt for the world based on Adam and yet have a hard time arguing grace for the world based on Christ? 2 Corinthians 5 is another of those passages that bumps up against a grace and a gospel that appears to be more inclusive than some of the models I was more familiar with.



And then it’s also interesting how shifts like these drive personal practice and our church’s ministry. We understand redemption not only as a one time saving event but as a continuing event that happens in real time. While listening to Christian radio the other day, a financial consultant, who is also a follower of Jesus, was asked for his advice and wisdom on what Christians should do during these tough and uncertain economic times. His advice was on the surface solid and timeless: continue to trust God for your needs as he is the ultimate provider of our needs. It harkens back to the sermon on the mount where Jesus chastises those who worry about food and clothing. It is good advice and a good reminder . . . for those of us (me included) who know very little about what it means to not have our needs met. But the question I found myself asking is what about those whose needs go unmet? How does the message of just trust God play out there? Again, I may be oversimplifying this radio comment and then deriving a whole theological perspective from it, but it seems to be that a ‘salvation is a moment’ theological perspective is much more at home with a just trust God motto, because the big question, my eternal destiny, has already been answered. But for those who struggle, for those kids who don’t have adequate food for the weekend (the Sioux Falls Food Bank now sends 1600 backpacks home with student so they have enough to eat over the weekend), for those families who fall between the gaps of making too much for assistance and not making enough to make it, for those who go without things I take for granted- furniture, clothing, shelter, meals- the bigger question is more on temporal needs then on eternal ones. And for me, the perspective shifts from how can I get you into the kingdom when you die to how can we together belong to the kingdom right now? A good exercise that really reveals what we value.



For a good sermon on this perspective, check out The Narrow Door by Greg Boyd. When you get to the site, scroll down to the 9/7/08 sermon: The Narrow Door.

The Values Gap

I am currently participating in Equipping Leaders, Vantage Point 3's Year 2 of their Leadership Program. So far, it is going pretty well and this week we are focusing on our values. Our first exercise was to pretend we were away from work for two months and were asked to write a letter to the person who would be overseeing our work- what we would tell them to do, what would be important enough to write a letter about and to make sure they remembered while we were gone. It was a pretty fascinating exercise. It’ll be more interesting as we’re forced to examine what our personal values are, and how values are not ideals (things I want to see in my life), but how values are behavior, what I actually do in my life. This kind of thinking was one of the major pieces that led to the Wednesday Night Service. We wanted to provide a platform for our church to live out our values. I think most Christians and churches, when asked or polled, would say that they value serving others- in fact, it would almost seem to go against the tenets of the faith to not affirm that! But when we looked around Hillcrest’s landscape last year, we felt that while the Reveal had done well in moving Hillcrest back into the community, our opportunities were limited to Cleveland school- if you weren’t a mentor or a reading buddy, you were excited at what Hillcrest was doing, but more so from a ‘fan’ perspective and not from a ‘player’ perspective. We realized we had a values gap (valuing one thing, doing another) and expanded our presence into the community to now include Wednesday nights. Doing this freed people to serve outside of a school day schedule, but also aligned our programs (our behavior) with our values (or our ideals). If we say we care about others, if we say that we are seeking to love God and love others, then we ought to be doing something tangible about it.

DC Insights

While Tarina and I were in DC we took in both the Holocaust museum and the natural history museum. Both museums really impacted me as to how cruel we can be to one another- the Holocaust museum is a stirring and visible reminder of how cruel and heinous the crimes committed against the Jews really were and how no one (not the Americans, not the German Evangelical Christians, . . . ) really stood up and did much of anything to resist this movement of terror. In fact, there is good evidence that the evangelicals in Germany simply aligned themselves with the Nazis and watched as these horrific things took place. In the afternoon we took in the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the WW 2 memorial, and the Vietnam War memorial. Later that night over supper I shared with T on how impactful the day had been and how much of what we had experienced anb how the museums and the memorials all symbolize the various responses humanity has had to various crises and how ironic it was that we were out in DC as part of a nonviolent movement (adoption and foster care) to one of the world’s biggest problems and how much of what we saw preserved how humanity often utilizes war or power to solve problems (or create problems)- it didn’t matter if it was the earliest civilizations and the presence of social classes due to agricultural sustenance, the Roman empire and its persecution of Christians, the centuries long oppression that the white people had over African nations, the Civil War and the mistreatment of slaves, the holocaust, the various wars that we fought (that yes may have done some good, but have also taken on quite the human toll). It seemed to simply amaze me and humble me that at times humanity, left to its own intentions, defaults to power and control as means of trying to make progress (or veils it as progress when in fact it is more like self-preservation).

Angels in Adoption

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post- I've been away from home more in the two weeks than I've been home (a rarity in my life) and haven't worked in blogging while on the road (a misstep in teh blogging world I am sure!). Two weeks ago Tarina and I were in Washington DC, accepting the award "Angel in Adoption" on behalf of Hillcrest's work with financing and supporting adoptions; you can see the press release from Senator Johnson's office here. I'll write about some insights throughout my next few posts, but on Tuesday (9/16) was an incredible day. We were at the Captiol for most of it receiving the award, talking to Senator Thune, getting a tour of the capitol, meeting with Senator Johnson and his staff and getting to share Hillcrest's story with adoption and the impact we’re trying to make in the community, and then the gala that night. One of my first thoughts from the whole trip is that Hillcrest is a part of a movement that is really seeking to find forever families for orphans and kids in foster care. We met some incredible people: from the couple in Illinois who lead a nonprofit that raises money and then financially supports adoptive families (they’ve helped 58 families in the last four years; make our four look rather small!) to the sister from New Hampshire who works at a children’s home seeking to place 4-17 year olds in forever families to the family from North Dakota who adopted 5 Native American siblings, various ages, after trying to adopt only one and learning that the four other siblings were spread throughout the foster care system. It was an amazing week indeed and one that will stay with me and us for awhile.

The different sides of Paul

As I read 2 Corinthians 6 today, I was struck by how much Paul and his friends had to endure for the sake of following Christ. Poor, shipwrecked, humiliated, alone, discouraged- all emotions that come with the territory of trying to follow Jesus (and more so in a church setting!) and yet Paul perseveres and clings onto his relationship with Jesus. Chapters 5 and 6 are tough to reconcile, at least for me and looking at a surface level. In chapter 5, Paul talks about his plea for all to be reconciled what Jesus did on the cross. He talks about the possibility of the newness of life that is offered- the 180 degree turn of living life your way to living life God’s way. In fact, again at a surface level and without any real study, Paul appears very inclusive with his language- using ‘all’ four times (one to refer to judgment, and 3 times to refer to Christ’s work on the cross), ‘they’ or ‘their’ three times (with one reference to not having their trespasses counted against them- does the they refer to the ‘all’ or some other sub-group?), and also mentions ‘the world’ one time (again in context of reconciliation and in connection with their, raising the previous question)? At a minimum (and again, without any study), Paul’s language appears to be at least inclusive, open, and welcoming. Christ died for and all are to be welcomed.

The tenor of chapter 6 is very different though as Paul instructs the letter’s readers on maintaining their separation from unbelievers. Verse 14 is the infamous “do not be bound together”- we typically translate this yoke and it is often used in relationships and pre-marital contexts to counsel people (most often students) from marrying or dating someone that is not a follower of Christ (most certainly good advice but, again on the surface, Paul appears to be talking about something more or different then just marital relationships). Perhaps Paul has in mind the idea of a yoke as a teaching- a rabbinical yoke similar to the way Jesus would have used the imagery. In that case, the teaching may make more sense. We are following Jesus, who yoke is this, and there are others yokes who teach something completely different. Again, Paul’s openness in chapter 5 seems not compromise the way that we are to live (and/or the yoke that we are to follow) that he advances in chapter 6. What that yoke exactly is, though, continues to be lived out and debated in all kinds of circles.

In My Own Backyard

Last night was another good night for our Wednesday Night Service, at least from my perspective. Andy, James, and I were on one of the furniture mission’s routes to deliver furniture. The Furniture Mission is a group that Hillcrest supports with its budget so it was great to partner with them in a volunteer way as well. Our second drop of the night continued my eye-opening experience. We unloaded and moved several pieces to a family living by the loop just west of downtown Sioux Falls. There were a couple of adults and several children in an older home that is characteristic of the neighborhood. The family was in need of the furniture and it was great working alongside James and Andy, and it was an experience for me that continued to remind me of the real needs that exist right here in our backyards. When I was a youth pastor, we traveled hundreds if not thousands of miles (and spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars) to experience the kinds of conditions and contexts that we are seeing on a weekly basis right in our hometown. Every week, I am changed. Every week I am humbled. Every week I am challenged. And while these are baby steps for me and for Hillcrest, every week I am hopeful of what these baby steps are doing in my life, my family’s life, and the life of our church.

A great trilogy

I finished book 3 in McLaren's trilogy over the weekend and was struck by these thoughts toward the end of the book: "We act as if eternal life means life in heaven after you die. So now, according to both Paul and John, the gospel is all about getting into heaven after you die by believing. And the enemy of believing, we say, is doing good works. So we've now created a system by which we see good works as bad- or if not bad, at least a dangerous distraction from faith. And now the gospel focuses not on the kingdom of God being available to everyone on earth but instead on the people who believe right escaping the earth to go to heaven after they die to enjoy something called eternal life. What matters now isn't good works but right beliefs. I know it's an overstatement, but . . . " (207).

While I obvioulsy haven't worked through all of the book's claims regarding heaven, hell, the end of time, etc, this statement for me highlights a fundamental change within myself over the last couple of years and also a fundamental change within our church. In some ways, we and I have overcorrected our past insistence on believing the right things (or saying the right things) and are attempting to balance that with doing the right things.

Where Jesus would have been

Last Wednesday I was with others from our church serving at a SD Achieve house . The house has 12 residents and over 20 full time staff. Our job was to serve supper and hang out at the house as our Wednesday Night Service. It was an interesting experience to say the least. There wasn't much to do in terms of work- some of our group were able to do the dishes, some (including my son Riley) were able to clear dishes, but a it became apparent that a big part of the evening was simply being present and being with people whom Jesus loves and whom are different then us. I know Riley and I had some good conversation on the way home and before bed that evening about the experience. When I read in the gospels about Jesus, I can't help but think it's places like this house where he would have hung out.

Beginning Book 3

Book 3 of McLaren's trilogy begins to focus on the concept of hell and at least in the beginning, sets up to trace the development of thought concernign hell. For Christians, when we search the Old Testament, you have the concept of sheol, which is a Hebrew term that connotes a resting place for the dead and not some place where bad souls experience eternal torment. As I read more of book 3 and reconcile it again with what I teach in my history and cultures class, it is interesting that other ancient civilizations and religions have some precursors to the after life: the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians certainly begin to develop some thought as to what the afterlife looks like. Certainly the Zoroastrians introduce some of the concepts that we are familiar with in our practice of Christianity- good vs evil, a monotheism with an evil force also at work, the idea of a final judgment, the idea of free will, etc. But these all predate the birth of Jesus and really predate the Christian notion of hell, at least as we understand it. So did we borrow these ideas? Add onto these concepts? Christianize them and make them our own? Does Jesus have this as a backdrop when he introduces the idea of hell? Is Jesus thinking of something else? I am sure these questions and more will be posed in my reading of book 3, but I am certainly curious. Good stuff indeed.

Finishing Book 2

Been reading a lot- can’t put down the McLaren trilogy. I have been so entrenched with the McLaren trilogy (am currently beginning book 3) that I have not been able to put it down. I finished book two over the weekend and was really struck with some of the final thoughts regarding heaven, and the foreshadowing treatment of hell, which book three picks up. Towards the end of book 2, Neo’s perspective concerning what the point of this life is and how that relates to heaven really struck me. MClaren writes “So I can imagine God saying to someone, "well done! You have lived well! You helped the story advance toward my creative dreams. You fed the hungry, clothed the naked, welcomed in the lonely, visited the prisoners, shared your bread with the poor. Wherever you went, you contributed love and peace, generosity and truth, courage and sacrifice, self-control and justice, faithfulness and kindness. You enriched the story, enhanced its beauty and drama and nobility. Your unique, creative contributions will never be forgotten, and even the smallest act of kindness will be eternally celebrated, rewarded. After naming naming and forgiving and forgetting your many faults and failures, I see so much substance to your character, so much to cherish, so much to value, and it will now be set free, given a new beginning in my new creation. You have an eternal place in my story! You have been harvested from this new creation, and now you will enter into the joy of the new creation! (McLaren, The Story We Find Ourselves In, 233). This is certainly different than the perspective of heaven that I am used to, and worth considering.

McLaren and CTU

One of the classes I get to teach every so often at Colorado Tecnhical University is HIST 210 (World History and Culture) and we spend the first couple of classes detailing humanity’s transition from a hunting/gathering societal structure to one that is primarily based on agriculture. It’s the transition to agriculture that spawns off division of labor, towns and cities, social classes, and the accumulation of wealth. Regardless of the society that we look at- Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India- this same societal pattern develops. As societies make the move to agriculture, all of these byproducts come with it. McLaren writes in The Story We Find Ourselves In that Cain and Abel is a story that reveals this conflict. Cain, the son who made the move to agriculture, kills Abel, who remains in his more primitive pastoral job of caring for the flocks (interestingly, God is pleased with Abel’s offering and not Cain’s). McLaren then writes on page 81 “eventually, the subsistence agriculturalists kill their pastoralist brothers. And eventually, the subsistence agriculturalists create surpluses, and they acquire greater and greater wealth, and primitive economies develop. And with economies come first towns and then cities. And with cities, people begin to feel more independent . . .”. I was fascinated by this writing because it is essence what we cover in our history and culture class, and you see it in every culture that develops. Truly, the story we find ourselves in.

We Are that Someone Else

We were with the Johansons and Amos at Bert’s house last night to do some yard work as part of Wednesday Night Service. Bert is a wheel-chair bound woman who lives alone with her six dogs. An 8 year old neighbor boy named Jacob appears to help her around the house. We got connected with Bert through Workers on Wheels and signed up to do some yard work- mowing, trimming, clipping bushes, etc. I had ran by Bert’s house on Tuesday to check it out to see how much work we’d be in for and at first glance it didn’t appear too rough. When we got there last night I had failed to take into account the second backyard- where the grass and the weeds were over 2 feet tall! So Amos got to working on the lawn, James and I and our sons Riley and Jamison trimmed and pulled weeds in the front. It was a fun night and I got a first hand look at how interesting and challenging it can be to engage my 5 year old son Riley in this whole idea of serving. It be a challenge to get him to pick up his toys, so helping him understand why we would help someone we had just met that night provided a valuable opportunity. As we were working, I asked if Riley could see that Bert was in a wheelchair. He said yes. I shared how that meant she couldn’t do what we were doing by herself. And then my son said what I say almost every day of my life: someone else can help her. And I shared that tonight, we are that someone else. As corny as it seems, we then reviewed the memory verse (Matthew 5:16) we’ve been working on from Hillcrest’s Family Time Guide right there in the lawn with his made up actions and everything. He was a typical 5 year old boy after that- some work, some play, lots of activity, but that moment captures the essence of why we are doing what we are doing. I am not a great parent by any means. I mess up all the time and I pray that the effects aren’t too rough on my boys. But for a moment last night, I was caught up in the perfect union of why we set out to do this- serving others, with others, and living out the scriptures the best that we can.

Defining Success

Our 2nd Wednesday night service is tonight and I think our numbers will level off a bit tonight. Some who participated last week aren’t signed up, some have already asked to be taken off for one reason or the other, and I am sure some just won’t make it over tonight. It will be interesting to see what happens as the service begins to settle in as a normal part of Hillcrest. Will it lose some luster and level off? Will it slowly pick up momentum? Will it remain somewhat the same? Reflecting on numbers and McNeal's idea that the scorecards have changed, I’ve asked myself how much of my own psyche is based on the fact that the service is starting off relatively well. If it hadn’t done well, how well would I be doing? It still would have been the right decision, but would it have felt like the right decision? Do numbers always validate one’s efforts, or is participating in the kingdom greater than just a stat sheet? I tend to love numbers- they are clean, they are easy, they don’t lie and they don’t mislead. But so much of the story of the kingdom, the work we find ourselves in, is more than just numbers. If Hillcrest hadn’t won an Angel in Adoption award, if the thank you notes from the community weren't coming in, if offerings were down, if no new folks were hearing of Hillcrest, would we still be doing the right thing? I believe these questions are good gut check questions for me personally. It was just two summers ago that we as a staff went through a vote of affirmation, that people were up in arms over programmatic and systematic changes, that we were fighting over the role of women in ministry, etc. It was just months ago that we were living week to week on offerings, wondering if we’d have jobs the next month, and yet still convinced that it was the right thing to do. One of the things we live by is that we try to the right thing, regardless of consequences. The right things don't change and can't always be measured.