Last year at this time Jessica and I were fund raising for a salary for 2008 so that we could work full time with Renovatus. God was gracious enough to not give us the amount of money we asked for and instead gave us some piddly little amount that, coupled with working two days a week at Outback, gave us enough to live off of for exactly one year. God is good.
But if you haven’t noticed, 2008 is almost up. Yep, that means that we are right now in the middle of another fund raising push. This year our goal is to raise enough money to actually have a “normal” full time salary. Letters are out (you might have received one), calls are happening, money is being pledged. Two weeks from now I’ll have some sort of clue as to what 2009 will look like. Will I be full time with Renovatus? Will I be full time with Burgerking? Will Jessica have to work? Will we be above or bellow the poverty line? Hmm, I wonder…so many possibilities, so much potential!
Today, however, a buddy and I were studying Philippians and we came to the realization that outcomes are up to God. I know that’s probably said quite often from a podium or in a small group discussion. But that’s the thing about the Bible, that’s why it’s called the living and active word of God at certain points, at the right moments it comes alive in just the right ways. So my “job” (according to the apostle Paul) is to grow in love, deepen in knowledge, and to continue in pursuing what is truly important.
Money will come if God so desires. The outcome is really up to him…but I hope his outcome includes enough for a brand new Wii for me!

I know it sounds bad, I know it’s got a terrible reputation, I know Renovatus isn’t that kind of church. But last Sunday we went…DOOR KNOCKING!!! (insert looming music here)
It goes like this. Every Christmas we partner in something you might be familiar with called the Advent Conspiracy. Pretty much it’s all about putting Christ back in Christmas (insert appropriate laughter here for bad corny joke). The Advent Conspiracy is about spending less, being more purposeful, sacrifice, and remembering that Christmas is more than just about consumerism and Santa Clause. One of the ways that we practice the Advent Conspiracy is through a warm clothing/blanket drive that we invite our neighborhood to partner with us in. So, last Sunday we went door knocking and invited our neighbors to join in the Conspiracy with us. Last year was our first attempt at doing this, and after last year we realized that our neighborhood was hungry to partner with us. Granted you get the occasional jerk, but in general people are eager to give, eager to know why we’re doing this, and eager to wish us success. As a way to empower our neighbors to engage in the Conspiracy in a greater way we also give them an advent calendar that we’ve created. On this calendar each day gives a different suggestion for how to live out the Christmas season with purpose and intentionality.
Next Sunday afternoon we’ll go around and actually collect up all the clothes and blankets and such. It should be fun.
I know door knocking is a faux pax, I know it’s old school, I know cool churches don’t do it…but…well, we love our neighbors and our neighbors don’t seem to have the same disdain for what we’re doing as we do.
Maybe next week we’ll hold a gospel meeting.

Let me tell you about my home community (small group). It’s amazing. We’re all completely different from each other, few of us should be friends let alone doing life together in a progressively more real way. It started nearly two years ago when Chris and Christie were a part of a spiritual discussion group that a friend and I started. Christie is a Seventh day Adventist and Chris was the dude who opened up the school for us on Sunday mornings. He was not into Christianity at all and he sometimes still isn’t (it depends on the day). Well that group went well for a period of time and eventually morphed into what we have now. Christie and Chris were joined by Aaron and Brittany who I met at Outback a few years back. One day you’ll read their life story in a book that is recommended on Oprah’s book club. I’ll have to blog about Aaron and Brittany another time, the story of how we met and grew together is to strange and funny. Just know that they are an intriguing and wonderful couple. The six of us were then joined by three other young couples who are all young and married and most often pregnant.

I couldn’t tell you what makes the group work. I can’t tell you how long it will work. This group is like a dangerous chemical compound that could react in an explosive and destructive manner or it could bond into something useful and amazing. At the very least, for the first time in our married life Jessica and I are beginning to feel like we have a circle of friends we can call our own.

So what makes my home community amazing:

1. Broad ownership. I don’t know how this happened, but eventualy-finally-this group is not just my group but our group.
2. Food. The meal we eat together has turned into the most important thing that we do…hmm…I wonder if the Bible has anything to say about the value of “breaking bread” together…
3. Growing Common Purpose. The discussions are happening, the awareness is growing, and the concept of us having a common group identity is becoming tangible.
4. Honesty/authenticity. We’re still not there yet. You know what “there” is-it’s when honesty becomes so core to the group that whose people become the ones you can tell anything to, who you go to first when something happens, etc. We’re getting there though.

Two things:

1. Read my wifes blog. She beat me to the post that I wanted to write.
2. If you read my blog please say so by clicking the “follow” link on the right. That way I can feel better about myself! I’ve got a stat counter folks, I know how many people read…and it’s about time that y’all come out of the woodwork!

Check this out. This was a buddy of mine in Portugal. I actually helped teach him English!

Mano Ray: Don’t be shy from uptown_studio on Vimeo.