Be like a child.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

-Matthew 18:1-3

Here’s a story from Grace Kids Company, our children’s ministry at Grace: back in October, the K/1 (kindergarten and first grade) room in GKC launched a campaign for the kids to raise money to build a house in Guatemala through Missions Frontier, one of Grace’s Frontline ministries and a short-term trip site. Missions Frontier, led by Matt and Leslie Capehart, is a missions organization that supports the local church through Kingdom business, short-term trips, education, and community projects. My wife, Carrie, will be going on the short-term trip to Chichicastenango, Guatemala from April 2-10, with a team from Grace (the team has started a blog here and will post updates while in Guatemala).

Anyway, through Grace’s Christmas catalog, the kids in K/1 found out that $1,200 would be enough money to build a house for a family in Guatemala who didn’t have one. They decided to do something about this, so they set up a large bank container in their hallway and these 6-7 year old kids got to work raising money.

For a good while, Noah had been saving for a toy he wanted. After weeks of saving, he had $17. Noah told his parents that he had decided, instead of buying the toy, to give it all to K/1 Crossing for the house to be built for the family in Guatemala. Knowing how much he wanted this toy, and how hard and long he had worked to save it, his parents assured him that it would be okay to consider giving part of his savings. Without hesitation, he answered. “No, I want to give it all.” And that’s just what he did!

A mom told us about her daughter’s desire to raise money to donate to the Guatemala project. Since it was around the holidays, the little girl decided to bake pies and sell them for “10 cents or however much people wanted to give.” In the first week, the little girl had sold 2 pies, for $10 each, and brought in all that money. By the end of the collection time, this girl had brought in $110 from baking pies!

By Christmas, the K/1 kids raised just over $1,300 in mostly quarters and dollar bills! This goes to show that it this was kid money–their parents didn’t help them much at all. Carrie will now go to Guatemala and help build the house the K/1 kids raised money for. She will be able to bring back pictures and stories to the kids about the house and the people of Chichicastenango, Guatemala.

The point is–these kids get it. They were told that some families don’t have houses in Guatemala. They did what they could to help. Now, a family will have a home in Chichicastenango because a group of compelled 6 and 7 year-olds put their childlike faith into action.

What holds us back from being like that?

Here we are at Outreach, Inc.

Eric Howard did NOT expect us and was quite surprised.  Here is a thank you from Eric.

Here is Pam Sardar from Truthseekers International.  She is so awesome and has such a passionate heart.

Our last stop of the day was at Third Phase right here in Hamilton County.

Betty and Ruth have been serving at Third Phase for I don’t know how long…30 years?  Here is Betty sharing some of her heart.

This was a fun day representing the people of Grace in sharing the checks from the Christmas Catalog.  So cool.

After we left LAM/LSA…well, here is Linda to tell you:

The Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic was crazy busy and we really didn’t want to slow them down from serving the clients that they serve, so we basically handed off the check and kept going.  Here is a picture of their offices:

Next stop before a quick lunch would be at the Shepherd Community Center.  They were also crazy busy.  I mean really, us dropping in unannounced and they are busy?  Of course they are!!  They wouldn’t be such amazing partners if they were not doing their thing day in and day out.  Here is the center for you to see:

Both Jay Height, Executive Director of Shepherd, and Geoff Wybrow, Executive Director of LSA, will be at Grace this weekend.  It is going to be some great services this weekend!

We will wrap up videos tomorrow, so check back!  There are some good ones still to come!

Recently Keith Carlson, Linda Kirchhoff, and Aaron Elliott headed out to deliver some of the Christmas Catalog checks to the amazing partner ministries that the people of Grace gave too.  We want to share with you some pieces of our adventure over the next few days.  Here are four videos to get you started, with more to come soon.  Sorry if the audio isn’t super stellar…we were cruising pretty low tech.

The first video:

The second video is where FoodRescue all happens…well, not really.  It happens at local businesses as people pick up food and deliver it to local food pantries…but John does a lot of the coordinating for all across the country from right here.

The Third video is a thank-you from John.

More to come…

By now, everyone is aware of the tragic earthquake that struck Haiti on January 13. Many of you know that at Grace, we responded in a big way. First, we scrapped the weekend services to speak to the crisis in Haiti and the questions “Why?” and “What now?” This allowed us to present to the congregation our response plan, which included a special offering, potential short-term relief trips, meal packaging, orphan care, and support of organizations on the ground in Haiti.

When I say Grace responded in a big way, that’s a bit of an understatement. The special offering brought in close to $240,000. Thousands responded when Safe Families (one of Grace’s Frontline ministries) sought homes for orphans potentially coming to Indy. People signed up to prepare meal packages through Kids Against Hunger faster than I could close registration (we had to open a second packing date). Medical teams are forming right now to travel to Haiti in the coming weeks with Nehemiah Vision Ministries to treat quake victims.

This leads me to a question I’ve been thinking about lately: How do people get compelled? In other words, what type of catalysts spark people to go “all-in” for a cause?

I hate to use this recent example of Haiti to analyze how people are persuaded to get involved, but we’ve seen such a huge response, and I’m trying to understand what led people to respond how they did. We certainly do not try to manipulate people in order for them to get involved, but there are a few ways, when presented well, I believe cause people to respond.

Our weekend services on January 16-17 tapped into 3 different types of response triggers that resulted in thousands becoming compelled for the sake of Haiti.

Rational Appeal

We shared staggering facts about Haiti’s reality pre-earthquake including stats about population density, poverty, and lack of resources. Most were unaware of the magnitude of Haiti’s destitution before the earthquake, and imagining all those factors coupled with an enormous natural disaster prompted many people to respond.

Emotional Appeal

Having taken a few philosophy courses in college, I know that most do not consider appeals to emotion as valid means of persuading others. Not only was our appeal to emotions justified, but I believe it was necessary. It’s easy to watch image after image on television of broken buildings and broken people and stay emotionally detached from the situation. We shared stories of people we met, including a few heart wrenching stories of children who lived in an orphanage in Chambrun. Sure, these stories were emotionally charged, but they needed to be shared; if people don’t know the reality of a situation, why should we expect them to respond? Engaging people’s emotions is sometimes necessary to break through people’s hard exteriors so they can empathize with the pain of others.

Spiritual Appeal

I honestly think we would have had a massive response if we would have stopped after rational and emotional appeals, but the most important thing that caused people to respond was a spiritual appeal. Dave responded to one inappropriate response based on really bad theology by a prominent evangelical leader that basically said Haitians got what they deserved (to listen to the message, click here). The sad part is that lots of Christians respond this way after major disasters. I heard prominent and everyday Christians say the same type of thing after 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina. It’s important to correct this bad theology and look at God’s commands to help those in need, especially when we have an overabundance of resources and have the ability to meet both physical and spiritual needs of these victims.

_____

Let me add that in order to get someone else compelled, you shouldn’t have to try very hard…when you do, you sound like a marketer or salesperson. Your cause should speak for itself, using stories and facts that are fueled by an unmistakable passion for what you’re doing.

I realize this isn’t an exhaustive list of ways to trigger all-in responses, but these three ways wove themselves into a strong cord a few weeks ago at Grace, and people are still responding.

(By the way, these aren’t new ideas. Aristotle originally came up with three different ways to persuade people: ethos, pathos, and logos. Read more about these persuasive appeals here.)

For the last two weeks we have heard a lot of news about Haiti.  And for good reason.  A horrible tragedy happened to perhaps one of the countries least prepared to cope with a horrible tragedy.  Devastation and death on a scale incomprehensible to most people.  And there will be no quick solution, no easy answer, and for the near-term, no end to the suffering that will continue.

In the midst of news reports and photographs and blogs and videos, something is happening to the people at my church.  This forgotten country on an island only visited when people cruise to the “other half” that is pretty and green is now being courted by the world.  And we’re in line to meet her, to understand her, and to suffer with her.

My church has given an extraordinary amount of money at a time when money is tight.  My church was willing to open up their homes literally at a moment’s notice when we thought a large number of Haitian orphans were going to arrive in a few hours.  My church rushed to be part of the first 400 people who could spend a day packing enough food packs to feed over a million people.

What is happening to my church?  It’s almost as if we are falling in love with Haiti.  And I couldn’t be happier.

Right now we’re brainstorming our next justice seminar at Grace on January 23…it’s about poverty.

We need some input from you.

What are some questions you have about poverty?

What are some misconceptions you’d like to have cleared up?

What don’t you understand about poverty?

What frustrates you about poverty?

What do you want to know about poverty?

Your comments will help us shape the next justice seminar. Thanks for your collaboration!

Not sure if you all are familiar with Steven Curtis Chapman.  He is a pretty famous Christian music artist, and also has a huge heart for adoption.  I am thankful to the folks running Hands of Hope here at Grace, one of our Frontline Ministries, who share Chapman’s heart.  Recently he tragically lost his daughter to an accident.  This is one of his latest songs, and frankly…is beautiful.  Watch it all the way to the end.  Knowing who Chapman is and what he has lived through makes this song all the more powerful for me.

I read approximately 29,347 blog posts this year, and, to be honest, I skimmed most of them. There were a handful that grabbed me by the heartstrings or made me think twice. Here’s a rundown of the top blog posts that inspired/wrecked/helped me immensely in 2009.

7. Brad Ruggles writes about what church isn’t.

6. A video posted by Anne Jackson…1:56, that’s when I started bawling. I dare you to watch.

5. A prayer, written by Brian McLaren, based on the beatitudes.

4. Stuff Christians Like building two kindergartens in Vietnam!

3. Barry Rodriguez asks where are the dudes? Why is it that guys don’t seem to get excited about serving others?

2. Shane Claiborne’s letter to non-believers in Esquire.

1. Shaun Groves discusses a church in India that’s doing it all wrong…or could they be getting it, and we’re the ones who are backwards?

_________

I know there are more than 7…what did I miss? Leave a comment with your favorite posts of 2009.

Shane Claiborne

Shane Claiborne has been a dialog partner here at Grace thorough his writings and through speaking throughout Indiana.  He is always provocative.  Although not our typical source of blog material, here is a great article written by Shane in Esquire magazine.  This is Shane at his finest (in my opinion).  Worth the read!  You can also click on the picture of Shane to find the article.