Bible Doing: Take Two

Well, we've learned a couple of things over the past few months.  We got a group together--six to ten people usually, including our family.  We visited a nursing home and handed out some treats, we got to know each other, and talked quite a bit about great ideas for potential service opportunities.

We didn't get our hands very dirty, though.  Organizing events is harder than it sounds.  We are still going on Sundays to visit our friend at the nursing home, and our family loves it more and more each week.

Last Sunday, I and my boys filled Mrs. K's bird feeder.  I love birds, so I figured I'd use this interest of mine to serve her.  I really enjoy it, as silly as it may sound!  On the way back around the building, Little S noticed another feeder was empty.  We filled that one, too.  Then two windows down, another empty feeder.  We filled that one, too.  Then, i heard a tap, tap, tapping.  Through the glare on the window, I could just barely see a lady watching us.  She pointed to her bird feeder.  It looked full, so I was puzzled.  I took it down from the tall iron hook and found the birdseed inside was moldy and all stuck together in an octagonal brick.  As I pulled out the birdseed brick and broke it up, the lady inside clasped her hands with delight and smiled!  We filled that one, too.

As we walked away, I heard another tapping.  It was the same lady.  She beckoned us back to her window so she could holler a thank you through the glass.

Total cost to us: $10 and 30 minutes

Total payoff: many smiles

This is addicting.  On the way home, we discussed a membership we could cancel to free up a few dollars so we could buy more birdseed and fill ALL the feeders.  If there is enough money left over, we might buy some plants to put in the empty planters on the patio. . . I love flowers, too.

It's not as hard as it originally seemed.

It's nothing really. . . Well, no.  It's not nothing.  It's a pleasure!

Bible Doing

Mrs O and I are excited about February 3.  What a kickoff this is going to be. . . and I'm not talking about professional sports!  On Super Bowl Sunday we're kicking off a new community group for our church, and it's going to have a bit of a different focus.

Well, it's not so much the focus that will be different, but the format.  Every group we've ever attended, including one that we hosted for three years in Maine, was focused on group discussion.  We would meet and study. . . some would call it a Bible Study.  We also had a focus on building community between members, so it had a major social component as well.

Some time ago, I began to think a little bit differently about church.  You can read some background here in a post called "Getting out of church!"  Basically, I began to feel like I was just talking and not doing anything about all the stuff I was talking about.  I was feeling like my week was so full of church events that I didn't have time for anyone outside of my church.  I didn't know how to justify or reconcile my schedule with what I was reading in the Bible.

Then I read some stuff: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, Crazy Love by Francis Chan, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller, Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus, and Love Does by Bob Goff.  All of these books increased my sense that something about my priorities had gone awry.

So, as suggested by Bob Goff in Love Does, we're starting a Bible Doing.  We're getting folk together with the intention of serving our community on a regular basis.  These opportunities to serve will take the place of some of our discussions.  Our discussions will then be focused on new opportunities and the experiences we have serving.

We're going to start by looking for some 'plug and play' service opportunities where we don't have to re-invent the wheel, but rather plug into organizations that are already going.  We're going to focus on the passions and talents of the group members.  We're going to turn everyday life into a mission trip!

We're not pros yet, but practice makes perfect!

"'He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well.  Is that not what it means to know me?' declares the Lord."  Jeremiah 22:10 NIV