It was July. People were in summer mode. The protestant exodus had taken its toll on our new church. So we decided to shake it up. We gave everyone two weeks notice. We told them to come to the building a half hour early (10:30am), make sure everyone had on walking shoes and bring wagons or strollers for the kids. We told them we were leaving the building for an adventure and a picnic after.
It was a hot one. I never would have thought more than half our normal attendees would come. At 10:30, we made a few teams and handed every family, or makeshift family (team) a local street map with a few streets highlighted. We announced our first neighborhood scavenger hunt. We gave each group the scavenger list of items with associated point values. The items collected and any other donations would be given to the local food pantry.
We also appealed to the competitors in the group by building up the idea of fabulous prizes awaiting the winners. The look on the introverts was priceless. They were especially troubled when we announced the twist to the game. The point values could double for every house that would answer 3 of our 6 survey questions. The questions were simple:
What is the greatest part of living in the community?
What is the greatest need in the community?
Where do they find out about what’s happening in the community?
Do they know of anybody or are they currently in need of any assistance?
Had they heard of the Itasca outreach team and their community services?
In less than 2 hours, the God moments were inspiring:
The introverts and their kids were running up to the front doors and ringing the bell.
The older folks sitting in the air conditioned hall began praying for safety and provision.
The older man requested we send a young man to come by to cut his lawn and it happened.
The neighbor of the retiree, who was assaulted a year earlier in a home evasion, offering to go to the door with one of our tribe to make sure she knew of the help being offered.
The conversations with other neighborhood Christians who loved what we were doing to reach out.
A person was given a bag of groceries just collected because they didn’t have anything in the cupboard.
The prayer for the person who answered the door but was struggling.
The autistic daughter of one of our core members sarcastically telling an elderly man, he might be happier if he helped someone in need.
The positive reactions on the faces as everyone returned for lunch. The group all looked like they had jumped out of their first plane or ran their first marathon.
Finally, the realization our community needs more kids activities as well as family friendly places to gather for relationship.
I wish I could say hundreds flocked to the church or that there was a public profession of faith on a doorstep. I can’t. We didn’t even collect a lot of donations (25 bags of canned goods). However, it did produce a change in our tribe, their kids and the community's perception of The Center in Itasca.
It’s been 18 months since we started this new tribe. We have focused on our ability to be missionaries in and to this community. The Holy Spirit birthed a second RENEW group, a third Forge Domestic missionary group, A STEM lab for the neighborhood, a Monday night community meal, a meditation group, three different types of recovery groups, a serving team for the food pantry and this fall, a mom's toddler motor group.
Leaving the building changes everything!
- Bob Butler, Forge Chicago (www.forgechicago.org)