I can’t believe it’s Tuesday and I am just now writing about it, but this past Friday (Oct. 31) the Roots Community had it’s first major “collision” event (a collision event is one designed to allow dissimilar lives to collide in a way that they normally wouldn’t. Sounds violent, but sometimes we have to crash into each other before we will take notice of our neighbors… watch the movie Crash and you may get it). We hosted a Trunk or Treat for the Davenport and Haines City communities. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it is basically a “safe” form of trick-or-treating where people line their cars up, open their trunks or tailgates, decorate them and hand out candy. Some of you may think that this is silly, and normally I would agree accept that this type of event is very needed in this community. Why? Because the majority of neighborhoods in the area of Davenport are either half empty or they are made up of mostly vacation homes, which would mean a lot of disappointed kids. Now, our little rag-tag group consists of about 17 adults with a few children. We couldn’t use all of our vehicles because we needed to run the event so we had to rely on family and friends to come to our neck of the woods and use their cars for our event. I believe we had about 30+ cars. Not a whole lot, but just the right amount. In the end the event was very successful. Jesse, our leader, estimates 1,000+ people showed up (I think it was more like 500+, but…) and we had 60 people express interest in our community (read: church). Here are some pics from the event:
To see all the pics you can go here: http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p243/kslique/TrunkorTreat08/?albumview=slideshow
So why do we (churches) do these types of events? Why do we offer something to the entire community during this time of year? As I would drive around the area looking for work (please continue praying about that) I saw churches with signs advertising Fall Festivals, Trunk or Treats, and even a Safe House. I wondered what they were trying to accomplish. I could probably guess what their reasoning was since I have been a part of many of these events. Most pastors and church members would say that they are a great “outreach” event. Shoot, that’s the party line I would produce in defense of the amount of time and money needed to do such an event well. The problem I have with that is semantic in nature, but really fleshed-out in practice. The term “outreach” creates an immediate separation. It suggests some form of compartmentalization wherein the church has closed itself off from the rest of society. I once saw it represented as the church creating a fortress to protect its members from the very people to whom they are supposed to be reaching and ministering. Perhaps the term should be changed to “reach-out”, but even then there is a suggestion of leaving one area and entering another… to reach out of our churches in an effort to touch and draw those who are not on the inside. That’s not a bad thing, reaching out, but what happens when the “outreach” event is over? As in our event, most churches will either require personal information for participation or they will ask for personal information to be volunteered (That’s what we did. We asked. We weren’t candy Nazi’s). In just about EVERY church I have been in the cards are used for 1) creating a somewhat realistic event attendance; 2) generating a new spam mail list, and/or 3) populating a warm-lead list for mid-week visitation. Problem? They are usually waved in front of the congregation on the Sunday after the event and then placed on the pastor’s desk and quickly forgotten as the “regular” business of the church takes more and more importance. One month later someone will ask for the cards because they are getting ready to mail out the newsletter and the pastor can’t find them because they got thrown away with all the junk mail that was piled on top of them. A bit cynical I know, but this is how it usually plays out. Outreach events tend to do exactly what their names suggest: reach out of our fortresses into the danger zone to collect and gather as many people as possible for a short amount of exposure and then retreat back inside and hope a few stragglers follow us in. I used to push against this in our staff and leadership meetings. I would use the example of putting a pie in the window to cool. We, as churches, are good at putting the pie in the window and enticing people to come in and have a piece. What we are called to do is take the pie to the people and sit down and eat it with them in their homes. There is a big difference between the two. In church-planting circles this distinction is labeled Attractional vs. Missional.
The Roots Community has taken this distinction and decided to be both attractional as well as missional. Last Friday I believe we took a big step towards accomplishing that goal. We were missional in that we provided a much-needed service to our community (as part of the community), and we were attractional because we did it well, and without manipulative fact-gathering tactics. People were asking about us, who we were, what we were all about, etc. That is the result of attractional, which was the result of being missional (or Incarnational). We didn’t reach into, or reach out of. Rather we co-existed with our neighbors and allowed a few lives to run headlong into one another. Just like in a real collision, some information was exchanged, and follow-up will happen. Perhaps we provided an opportunity for neighbors to finally talk to one another. Perhaps we provided the opportunity for a single mom to let her kids run wild in a safe, controlled environment. Or perhaps we provided a glimpse of the grace and joy of knowing Jesus that someone has been desperately seeking. Either way, our hope and prayer is for transformed lives.
Lord, I pray that you help us to always see our role in Your kingdom as creating opportunities for people to come into contact with the love and grace that You offer. Help us as we pour over the information provided from individuals. Help us to see them as real people with real lives and real problems. Continue to provide for our needs in a miraculous way. We lean on You alone for provision, and know that it will be a catalyst for lives changed.
