History of Connecting!

A couple of months ago, I heard a report on NPR (that's National Public Radio for those of you who are not as cool as me!) about a study of cell phones in the last 10 years. How far they have come and how they have improved. You didn't have to hear the report to know that cell phones have come a long way. Of course, one phone (made by a company that is named after a fruit) has changed a lot of that. But even before the Iphone, cell phones from their size, function, and features have improved leaps and bounds in the last decade. But what caught my attention about the report (and I have chewed on for the last couple of months) was the only thing that the report said had NOT improved dramatically over the time. Yep, you got it: the hearing and speaking quality. The report said that while some improvements have been made, by far the worst function of a cell phone is the sound of the conversation you have on it. Which is the whole purpose of the cell phone. The one thing it was made to do, it does not do very well.

I feel this way about the church sometimes. The churches in the last 10 years have gotten really good at time management, energy production, programming, and marketing. The church can make a sermon series on Ezekiel sound hip and relevant, when we all know it is not! Some churches are machines. They run well, are smooth and are very polished. But is that what CHURCH is about?

I have a friend who has moved a couple of times over the last few years. She says that she thinks her calling is to teach churches how to make people feel apart of the church. She says churches are bad at it. When she goes to a new city, she has to jump in herself in order to feel a sense of belonging. Maybe that's the reason people can attend worship services for years and never be connected. We are great at making them feel it is important to be there but not so much at making them feel like they belong. Isn't being a part of a community high on the purpose of the church? I am sure that the networking plans of the church are so good that every visitor in the last 15 years knows about everything that the church has on its calender, everything it has to offer, and they have been emailed and snail mailed about them. My question is who would be there to make them feel welcomed or would they sit in the back and feel distant?

I know that some people are really good at making people feel a part and others are not. But we have to do a better job at connecting with people. I don't want the church to be a well-oiled machine that does everything but the one thing it was made for. That is connecting members with Jesus and his people. Let's do our part of making our churches as inviting and welcoming as the God we live for. To people looking for the best possible way of living, do we offer a radical way of living in a community of people who know, love and look out for each other? Or do we offer an hour of produced energy one day a week that has a lot of bells and whistles but ultimately fails at its purpose?

Here is a couple of things that I want to think about: Of the people who join your church, what percentage actually stays active? Years ago as a freshman at Harding, I heard Rich Little say this,

"The number one reason people become a Christian is because they met a Christian. The number one reason why people don't become a Christian is because they met a Christian."

What do the people we meet ultimately decide to do?

Everyday Justice

So for my birthday my buddy got me a great book, Everyday Justice by Julie Clawson. In the book, Ms. Clawson walks us down the paths of how we can make choices everyday to life a life that is mindful of Justice. In the first chapter, she starts off saying that the problem with justice is so big sometime it overwhelms us, so we give up. Making choices about clothes, water, coffee and other items that may or may not be involved in slave labor. We are so unsure of how to change this we choose to do nothing out of being ovewhelmed. So far it is a good read and is great at giving small ways and choices to live for Justice everyday.

So while reading this book at the laundromat a week after my birthday, I ran into one of those small problems that drive me crazy about businesses. While I was reading a middle age male came over and ask to borrow a quarter because the dryer had taken his last quarter. So I gave him one...and minutes later he was back. I guess he heard my deep pockets full of the quarters I had, but he came back over and asked for another quarter. Because another dryer had done the same thing.

After the man left I checked for the return policy the laundromat had. To get a refund, you had to fill out a paper with your name, address and phone number then slide it under the door. And no one was working that night. So what happens if you were like this guy? This was his last money and he's not just washing his own clothes, he's washing clothes for his family. Do you go home with wet clothes? In this case he had to borrow money from a total stranger. I did some research in prices, and it costs about 22 cents to wash a load of clothes and it costs 14 cents just to dry them. Making the total price somewhere around 1.50 for a load at this laundromat. the mark up is almost 4 times per load. Not to mention the horrible customer service (which is typical at Laundromats).

Harold Shank pointed out to me once that you never see any naked people in the inner city. But every time a church has a clothing give away people line up at the door for more clothes. Why? because a lot of times they stock pile clothes because they cant afford to wash clothes for the whole family because of the huge mark up per load.

So WHAT IF churches built low cost laundromat in their neighborhood. What would be the benefits of it? First the church could provide jobs for church members and community members and the customer service would be better immediately. That is, after all, the business that the church is in. How much would it save the customer in the community? If you could have the loads cost half (only 75 cents). Let see how much that would save a family of 4 that uses the laundromat.

Example:

Say a family does 6 loads a week. That adds up to about 312 loads of laundry a year. That means we would be saving families $234 a year.

Which might not seem like much...unless you are that family. Say you have 40 loyal families that come to your laundromat. You are developing relationship with 40 families, not to mention you've saved them a total of $9,360.

And that is a great start for living justice everyday.