red & yellow, black & white

Last week was my birthday.

Like most, I enjoy my birthday.  I usually get some cool things.  When I was younger I used to get the newest video games, the hottest basketball gear (ok, maybe I still got some OKC Thunder stuff this year) and other really sweet stuff.

Over the last several years I have been in a slow transition from getting gifts like the ones I mentioned above to more "adult" gifts.  You know, tools, books, an occasional dress shirt or nicer, non-basketball shoes.

I'm not going to lie, it's probably time.  I think my wife, Mackenzie, has had a large influence during this transition, which is a good thing.  Otherwise I might still be having birthday cakes with Karl Malone and Chris Webber on them, instead of a cookie cake with "Happy Birthday" written on it.

This years birthday was great, like all, but had a little twist to it that birthdays in years past did not have.

The Friday before my birthday, which was Sunday, I was at the mission with one of our interns and seven of the neighborhood kids.  We were doing what we do every Friday by going to two local Walmarts and picking up several hundred pounds of produce, frozen meats and breads.

We then continued with our normal activities by distributing these food donations throughout the neighborhood. Door to door we went and as we completed each block we continued to add more and more kids to the mix.  By the end of our neighborhood, food distribution we had gathered well over fifteen kids and several more had come and gone.  There was a curious mix of kids this morning.

Once we had successfully handed out all of the food throughout the neighborhood I told everyone helping that we had no additional donation pickups for the day and that we were done for the day.

So, I parked the van and trailer and headed over to Rock Island to lock it up for the day.  Here's what I walked in to...

This was by far the best surprise birthday I have ever been given.  The two girls pictured above (Jessica in the purple...errr, pink and Lizzy in the green, black and white) are primarily responsible for organizing this whole thing.  They communicated with all the kids in the neighborhood, which I must say is a task in and of itself, and prepared this very special day for me with the help of some others.

I recently heard @ScottWilliams talk about church diversity, or, the lack thereof.  He talked about how Sunday, the day most Americans meet for 'church', is the most segregated day of the week.  He's right.  We have our white churches, our black churches, our mexican churches and so on and so on.

He went on to give a very humorous, yet accurate, statement about today's church.  He said the Kingdom of God looks more like the makeup of people in a Walmart and less like today's church.  Kinda burns, huh?

Sometimes when people come to Cross & Crown they ask my dad where he goes to church.  He tells them he's at church.  They try rewording it another time.  He knows what they're asking.  They want to know where he attends on Sunday mornings.  He goes on to explain how at Cross & Crown we do church every day.  We meet together, we share together, we worship together and it seems like God continues to add to our gathering pretty consistently (Acts 2:44-47).

One of my favorite parts about doing church every day at Cross & Crown is that whether your red, yellow, black or white (or any other color or mixture of colors) we are what the Kingdom of God looks like as a community of believers.

When I look back at the pictures from my surprise party I think it gives me a very small glimpse of what that Kingdom will look like.

real. impact.

This week I was gently reminded of a never changing truth about the work I am greatly privileged to be a part of at Cross & Crown.

This summer has been crazy.  Crazy in a good way.  Crazy in a, "wow, there's a whole lot of frickin' people here every day," sort of way.

We have seven interns this summer.  We have had interns in the past but never more than two at one time.  One of the interns is a college student.  Two of the interns will be juniors in high school next year. Two of the interns will be freshmen in college next year.  And, last, but certainly not least, two of the interns are college students and from the neighborhood.  Which, we think, is pretty great.

One of my favorite characteristics of Cross & Crown is that it is a mission for the people of the neighborhood, run by people OF the neighborhood.  The clothing room, food distribution, prayer room and some of the other larger functioning 'ministries' of Cross & Crown have been run by people of the neighborhood for several years but this summer is the first time Rock Island, primarily our elementary program, has been fortunate enough to have prior Rock Island graduates organize, coordinate and run a portion of our youth activities.

Along with the interns we have our normal gathering of youth from the neighborhood.  There are a handful of the kiddos who get up bright and early every morning (well, early for a kid on summer break) to come and lend a helping hand packing boxes of food, organizing donations of clothes and clean laundry, amongst other things.

My point being, there's mucho activity and bodies every which way you turn.

If I'm not careful it's very easy for me to get caught up in all the activity.  All the noise, all the motion, all the kids, all the seizing women falling on the stairs (yes, that happened this past week).  There's plenty of "stuff" to do.  Tasks to be done.  There are continuous needs of people to be met.  Legitimate needs.  Never ending needs.

If I'm not careful I can loose focus of my primary objective.  Very easily I concentrate my efforts on the task to be completed, the job to be done, the need to be met or the work to be done and less on the person with the need.

I think meeting the immediate need will satisfy the person.  Maybe it will.  For a short time.  Until there's a new need.

Here was my reminder this week...

Yes, money, food, clothes, education, ect. these are all helpful items that are greatly needed.  But, they aren't the single, most impactful thing we can offer.

I know what you're thinking.  Offering relationship/friendship to someone is time consuming.  You're right.  It might even make you think that throwing some money at those in 'need' doesn't sound so bad after all because offering a relationship/friendship is a liiiiiiittle more of a commitment.  That, also, is true.

Thinking something like this doesn't make you a bad person.  It just makes you a shallow person.  I'm kidding.  Kinda.

All I'm saying is that, for me, sometimes I need a reminder of what's really impactful in changing someone's life and not just some short-term fix and this video did it for me.