The Most Important Church Planting Book I’ve Read (Isn’t About The Church)

In May of 2007 I was on campus at Fuller for a two-week seminar with my cohort when I overheard one of my classmates recommend The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. For some reason -  despite the fact I had a stack of books to read over those two weeks – I found it at a local bookstore and read it that night (it’s a small book).

By the next morning I knew I was going to plant a church.

I’d been fighting this impulse for years and the books I’d been reading on church planting didn’t help. They all basically boiled down to, “10 easy steps for building a high-revenue, over-bloated, top-heavy, pastor-dependent bureaucracy.” I just wasn’t interested. But Brafman and Beckstrom were able to catalyze my imagination where a dozen church planting books had failed.

The authors claim that in the emerging world of the Internet-driven thinking decentralization – that is, the diminishing of hierarchical structure and formal leadership – has become a major asset. The authors call this a “starfish” organization, taking their cues from the decentralized biology of this curious echinoderm, and contrast it with “spider” organization which may look superficially like starfish, but are still essentially command-and-control driven.

There are several features of “leaderless organizations” that give them a major advantage: When attacked they tend to become even more decentralized making them difficult to kill; they spread their intelligence or authority throughout the system, making them easily adaptable to different contexts; and this adaptability makes them exponentially subversive, a dangerous factor in business since starfish organizations tend to decrease profitability. The authors take the reader on an entertaining and fascinating tour of various starfish organizations from the Apache Tribe, to Napster, to Al Qaeda, making a compelling case along the way.

Perhaps most interesting, according to Brafman leadership in a decentralized organization isn’t absent, it’s just earned rather than entitled. Authenticity is the only real qualification for leadership – good news for an institutional church whose leaders often fail staggeringly, and publicly for lack of character.

There are some obvious applications to ecclesiology, not least of which is how these kinds of organizations tend to empower people at the grass roots level and redefine leadership in terms of catalyzing and nurturing rather than dominating and controlling. This is where I found my sense of calling coming alive in response to this book. For me, reading it from a church perspective was both thrilling and terrifying. By and large, churches are clearly spiders: centralized, top-heavy, and leader-dependent.

Perhaps most challenging and frightening to Church institutions (and professional clergy like me!) is that in a world moving toward decentralization, the very institutional nature of the church is threatened, along with the institutionally protected artifacts…like professionalism itself.

So, some question for discussion:

• How have you navigated the tension between centralization and decentralization as a leader?
• What books have most influenced you as a church planter?
• Do you think decentralization is a technology driven fad or a genuine cultural progression?

Technorati Tags: Church, Church Planting, clergy, Ori Brafman, Rod Beckstrom, The Starfish and the Spider

5 Arguments Against the Use of Marketing and Media in Church

American Evangelicalism has always been media savvy. From Charles Fuller to Billy Graham, mass media has been used for conveying the information of the gospel to multitudes. More recently, we’ve pressed into television, advertising, branding, and multi-media to attract crowds and convey the message. Video-venues (part of the multi-site church approach) are the latest accepted innovation.

Simultaneously, the American church is in a crisis of attendance and character and the missional conversation is partly about rethinking ecclesiology for just that reason. I think this necessitates rethinking our use of modern marketing methods and media technology as well. I have five concerns:

The Tendency Toward Deception:
Advertising is an inherently deceptive medium. Whether we’re producing a T.V. commerical or designing a flyer or video, the purpose is usually persuasion and that plays upon our innate desire to be seen as better than we really are. Rather than check this tendency with open humility, we often go the other direction: creative exaggeration. Brochures, websites and promotional videos portray “shiny happy people” and the promise of easy triumphalism through pixelated filters. This is the peddling of image through desire, just like a typical car commercial or beer ad. The subtle yet powerful message is, “Buy what we’re offering and you can be just like the people in this ad.” But we can never be like the people in those ads because they don’t actually exist.

Emotionally targeted advertising is a poor substitute for having an identity derived from being created in the image of God.

Artificially Exaggerating the Mundane:
One of the most effective means of containing people is to make ordinarily mundane things seem more exciting. On TV and film this is achieved through artificial “technical events” like cutting, panning, fading, adding musical scores, special effects, etc. All this adds the illusion of motion and depth to an otherwise boring experience (television and video stripped of ornamentation are inherently flat and boring).

We do essentially same thing with church services, youth gatherings, and childrens ministries. We build worship music sets and preach messages engineered to produce an emotional crescendo, or use the gimmicky minutia of American teenage culture as accouterments to the scriptural text. This kind of hype creates a false perception of reality and an self-defeating default perspective because we become over-stimulated to the point where the normal level of hype has now become the new mundane. When our old techniques aren’t working anymore we must ramp up to the next decibel.

Hype is a poor substitute for cultivating eyes and ears faith so we can recognize the movement of God in ordinary things.

The Mediation of Experience:
People tend to think they’ve experienced something simply because they saw it on television. Millions of tweens think they know the Jonas Brothers because of the Disney Channel. In my generation we thought we knew Monica and Chandler too.

A weekend outreach may become a life-changing experience for many people. But when we show a video recap of it on Sunday, hundreds or thousands suddenly own the experience. Because they belong to a church that does those kinds of things, they see themselves as participating in that reality. But they’re not. The more technically proficient the media, the more vicarious appropriation occurs and the more people are kept in a stasis where they don’t leave (the root meaning of the word entertainment). This same vicarious mediation can occur with preaching, and is likely to occur when the real people have been replaced by photon-facsimiles in video-venues.

Mediation through technology is a poor substitute for discipleship praxis.

The Trap of Professional Branding:
Being an American consumer requires I maintain an ongoing suspension of dis-belief. Wal-Mart tells me in a thousand ways that they care about my well-being. But they don’t. As a savvy consumer I’m aware of this. It’s an open secret I’ve known since I was 4 years old and my parents taught me to watch TV commercials with suspicion. But even though I know this I suspend my dis-belief while consuming because I want to believe their products will make me happier. I’m willing to try it on the off-chance it’s an accidental truth. This creates an internal dichotomy wherein I love the merchant (if I like their products) and distrust them at the same time. But I go along with the charade as long as they’re the best or the cheapest – or both. This is an ingrained consumer response to ever-escalating marketing efforts.

When churches engage in the same marketing practices we stimulate the same double-minded response. If the marketing materials are good, people are impressed because professionalism is a highly effective selling point; the appearance of competence makes the suspension of dis-belief easier. But what we reap in return is not covenant commitment, it’s brand loyalty. This cripples churches in the long run because it’s only a matter of time before someone else offers a better or cheaper Jesus product. Worse, it debilitates the believer’s capacity for faith because our implied message is that Christianity is just another dubiously-motivated product in the marketplace.

Branding is a poor substitute for genuine spiritual power.

The Deterioration of Kinship Communities:
Mass-communication is inherently fascist-leaning because it atomizes and immobilizes people in order to shape behavior (there’s no need for dictatorship in nations saturated by television). The result is passive consumer-spectators. This same phenomenon occurs in churches that depend on mass media. There’s a reason for this: small communities (families, tribes, etc.) adhere to one another through gifts, mutuality, and affection, and they communicate values and traditions through those resulting kinships. That is the currency of small groups. But among larger populations people can’t maintain a plenitude of kinships. That’s where the mass media and the marketplace enter. The marketplace allows for the mediation of relationships in a large population because cash allows for interaction liberated from relational obligation. Mass media fills the communication gap created by the loss of kinships and, in a feedback loop, supplants them at the same time, driving the population toward the market instead. Hence, the larger the group the more consumer-oriented it must become by necessity, the more it must rely on mass media to create unity, and the more the population will be passivized. In fact, the larger the population, the more it is necessary to create passivity in order to govern. I’m convinced this is a major reason why mega-churches struggle to become genuinely missional.

Mass media and marketplaces are poor substitutions for genuine community.

Let me be clear: I’m not suggesting that media can’t be utilized by the church with integrity. I think it can be, and I have friends who do – but it must be done with tremendous caution keeping these inherent dangers in mind and countering them intentionally. Ultimately, I think the key is to use these media to tell the truth and distribute power – no small task given that these aims are generally opposed by the mediums which distort truth and aggregate power by design. Telling the truth and empowering people through mass media is somewhat akin to making peace with war.

Technorati Tags: Church, Consumerism, Culture, marketing, Media

Should Missional Church Leaders Be Paid? (Prelude)

Next week I’ll be writing a few blog posts on the subject of vocation and leadership in the missional church. A number of others have posted on this subject recently – including JR Rozko, Todd Heistand and David Fitch – and as a missional church leader myself, I have my own personal struggles. I’ll be mashing all that raw material together starting on Tuesday.

But first, I want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on this subject? What questions should we be asking? Do you think being missional necessitates being non-professional? What problems do you foresee? If you’re a church-planter/leader, what are your struggles with vocation? If you’re part of a church – any kind of church – what are your thoughts on professional leadership?

Technorati Tags: Church, Leadership, Ministry, missional, Vocation

Roger Ebert and Prophetic Memory

Click here to read a delicious post by Roger Ebert about the loss of his ability to eat or drink. Read the whole thing. If you like it, come back.

* * *

Ebert’s memory – catalyzed by a Cormac McCarthy novel – has gone into overdrive in the absence of his eating faculties. Serving him far more than mere tantalizing reminders of his current deprivations, his memories actually nourish him from the past:

I don’t drink beer, but the frosted mug evoked for me a long-buried memory of my father and I driving in his old Plymouth to the A&W Root Beer stand (gravel driveways, carhop service, window trays) and his voice saying “…and a five-cent beer for the boy.” The smoke from his Lucky Strike in the car. The heavy summer heat.

For nights I would wake up already focused on that small but heavy glass mug with the ice sliding from it, and the first sip of root beer. I took that sip over and over. The ice slid down across my fingers again and again. But never again.

These evocative snapshots of the past succor him during present trials. So much so that one gets the sense he prefers the quality of life these amplified memories provide. These are new experiences, not cheap facsimiles of old ones. Interestingly, some friends visiting him in the hospital interpret this as a work of God:

“Could be, when the Lord took away your drinking, he gave you back that memory.”

Whether my higher power was the Lord or Cormac McCarthy, those were the words I needed to hear. And from that time I began to replace what I had lost with what I remembered.

Of course, it was both the Lord and Cormac McCarthy. Through the prophetic passages of scripture we imbibe of the prophetic memory, traveling beyond our dystopian wilderness and into the paradise of the Lord (good literature can do the same to a lesser degree). Consider how Isaiah serves up prophetic memories of the future in much the same way Cormac McCarthy and Roger Ebert dine on the past:

He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (from Isaiah 2)

And again:

Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. (from Isaiah 65)

For those whose prophetic memories have been amplified by faith, these experiences of the future sustain like no food can. But for the beloved community of God, they’re more than memories, for we inhabit them together when we feast at the table of fellowship, and Ebert stumbles upon it’s earthly parallel:

What I miss is the society. Lunch and dinner are the two occasions when we most easily meet with friends and family. They’re the first way we experience places far from home.

The beloved community is where we taste the promises of prophecy tangibly. It is where we chop and cook, poach and roast and savor the meal of the kingdom come – quite literally, here and now, in plain public view. It is where, and when, and how a people of the future, presently deprived of their total faculties, “experience places far from home.”

Technorati Tags: Church, Cormac McCarthy, Drinking, Eating, Fellowship, Food, Isaiah, Literature, Memory, Prophecy, Prophetic Memory, Roger Ebert

What We Can (un)Learn From The Apple Tablet

The tech world is currently enraptured by the possibility of a new Apple Tablet computer. Nobody even knows if it’s real or not, but that hasn’t kept the mere hint of it’s impending announcement from bumping Apple’s stock. Even though this as-yet-unannounced slice of personal-computing heaven may be nothing but vaporware, I’m going to suggest few lessons we should (un)learn from it anyway.

So here goes: 5 missional lessons we can (un)learn from the new Apple Tablet: Continue reading…

Technorati Tags: Apple, Church, iPhone, iPod, iSlate, Leadership, Mac, marketing, missional, Missional Church, Tablet

Church as a Costume

It’s fun to dress up.

When we celebrate Halloween or go to masquerade parties, dressing up becomes a way to explore our inner desires. When I was a kid my best friend and I once dressed up like Ninjas for Halloween, complete with fake throwing stars and swords. We stole out at midnight and scaled neighborhood trees, hacked random bushes, and kicked and chopped at each other savagely.

Of course, neither of us actually knew any martial arts fighting techniques – mastering any martial art requires years of intense devotion and practice, a price we certainly weren’t willing to pay – but wrapped in black gear and brandishing fake weapons made us feel like the real thing, and we bloodied each other all the more for it. There’s something about dressing up and pretending that ramps up our short term enthusiasm and it’s far easier than becoming the real thing. It’s easier in the same sense that buying new running shoes is easier than becoming genuinely fit. Sometimes we buy these things because they make us feel the part for a little while. Continue reading…

Technorati Tags: Church, Costuming, David Allen, Jesus, Matthew, Tools

Eating Our Own Egos

I’ve been a pastor for nearly 14 years in a denomination that is known the world over for its innovation in worship music. But there’s a dirty little secret that not many people talk about: hardly anybody in church sings anymore.

And it’s not just us.

I’ve been to dozens of churches in different denominations (including my own) and there’s not much singing going on in any of them. In fact, it’s not just the congregations. Last year I was at a regional pastor’s conference where for two straight days worship bands took the stage morning, noon, and night and blasted us with heartfelt songs…and very few people sang. We watched, we tapped our feet, we clapped politely after every song (I hate that), and we smiled. But hardly anyone sang. And these were pastors.

I have to admit, personally I have been completely bored with Sunday morning worship for well over 12 years. By and large I think the evangelical brand of worship is an inch wide and an inch deep and, even worse, our dependence on technology results in the mediation of genuine experience – and video-venue churches only exacerbate that problem.

Lots of folks want to blame the decline of congregational singing on shallow pop-songs and amplified music, but let’s be honest: the problem of lackluster worship began long before electric guitars. Archaic hymns weren’t connecting with emerging generations in the 60′s and hymns connect even less with uninitiated emerging generations today. They may learn to appreciate hymns (as I have), but it takes time to integrate hymns meaningfully into our context. Besides, there’s nothing inherently virtuous about songs written before the 20th century.

Some think the solution involves raising the bar for “good songs” or “good worship leaders.” I’m all for doing things well, but what people typically mean is that we need to ratchet up the skill level. That sort of subjective elitism will only lead to more of the professional/amateur split that already threatens the integrity of the Western Church at large.

Others vilify the Jesus-is-my-boyfriend brand of worship songs which make Christ the intimate object of our emotional expression. There’s an entire chapter devoted to this in a well-known missional church book. The author’s rant toward intimacy-orientated contemporary worship is so antagonistic that it borders on homophobia (seriously, I was embarrassed for him when I read it).

But, as bad as contemporary worship can get, I think we ought to admit that it has done much to revitalize the faith of (probably) millions of people all over the world. In fact, by far the most participatory, passionate, powerful congregational singing I’ve joined, hands down (no pun intended), was in contemporary-worship settings. There’s nothing inherently wrong with emotionally expressing our love and devotion to God through contemporary, first-person songs. Emotions ought to be part of our offering.

It’s true that many old hymns are theologically rich compared to many new worship songs, but we tend to compare the best of the former with the worst of the latter and pat ourselves on the back for being theologically astute. Moreover, I think many people simply feel hymns are theologically richer for strictly aesthetic reasons. Archaic language tends to seem smarter because it’s less accessible – when in fact it’s just archaic (people think the King James Bible is theologically richer for the exact same reason).

Usually, when it comes down to it, these perspectives are mostly about taste and temperament. We want our worship to look like us (gregarious, dignified, upper-class, blue-collar, hip-hop, alternative, contemplative, country, hipster…take your pick). When it looks like me it doesn’t threaten me.

There’s a lot going on with this dilemma, but I’m going to risk oversimplifying by saying I think it’s fundamentally a failure to teach what worship is through our church praxis. Our understanding of what worship actually is must be followed harmoniously (which is where evangelicals fail) and contextually (which is where inherited traditions fail) by the way we actually practice worship. What we do teaches more powerfully than what we say. When we attract people to a passively-received spectacle, we’re teaching them that worship is spectatorship – so we shouldn’t be surprised when they become passive spectators. As Bill Kinnon recently observed, What we win them with is what we win them to.

Good teaching is a relatively slow process of discerning not only what people need, but also what they already have. It’s like a pot-luck. The good teacher’s job is to set a table where everyone can enjoy a full meal because of what everyone brings. Moreover, what we’re teaching (namely, Christian worship) is not an event or a gathering – it is an ongoing life of this very kind of meal, where the first gift is offered by God (demonstrated via Eucharist) and the offering of oneself to God in return through the diverse gifts of the faith community (which are also given by God) is the only reasonable response (Rom 12). It’s logically obvious that at this kind of meal and in this kind of life everyone must pitch in (1 Cor 14). Hence, this kind of worship is best taught by living that way intentionally, over a long period of time with other people. Our gatherings should represent that same slow-cooked, pot-luck life.

However, from a church leadership perspective, there’s a very real temptation to abdicate that kind of participatory worship-teaching in favor of entertainment because entertainment can quickly draw a crowd, and crowds can be inspired to give money – and money is what makes the world church go round (isn’t it?). We never say that out loud, but we always rationalize it. We think we can’t sustain ourselves without the kind of revenue that entertainment promises. We’re addicted to the drug of conspicuous success (bigger, better, stronger, faster) and we no longer believe that God’s daily provision of gifts, given through the faithful, will result in conspicuous success – and it probably won’t. Therefore, we’ve taken control of God’s gifts by converting them to cash so we can spend them however we please.

But there’s another dimension to teaching, and, behind that, another dimension to the preference for entertainment-based worship.

On the last night of that lackluster pastor’s conference, a well-known worship leader took the stage and did something radically different: he told us what to do. He coached and exhorted us through our apathy until eventually the place came alive and people brought their sacrifices publicly. There is a general squeamishness today among missional leaders about being too directive – and for good reason. For far too long the church has been enamored with a coercive posture of power. But good teaching also recognizes when to be directive and correct mistakes.

We’ve confused individualized liberty with authentic worship and the result is entire congregations of people who are isolated in a crowd: “Good morning! Here at church XYZ we believe you’re free to worship any way you like. Just do whatever feels comfortable.” Well, frankly, that’s a leadership cop-out. It’s bad teaching and it isn’t even remotely theologically true. When we worship this way, we aren’t feasting at the table of the Lord on gifts of grace that flow from divine abundance, we’re merely eating our own egos. Like modern consumers of fast food, we’re getting spiritually fat while simultaneously dying of malnutrition.

Down deep, our worship dilemma isn’t about the songs, the style, the instruments, the amplification, or even the loss of connectedness to our past traditions. Those things are important and should be used appropriately in harmony with the best theology. But the core problem is us, not our structures or systems. We’ll always take every opportunity we can to break every well-intentioned system we create. The problem is the condition of our hearts. We need to learn to lay down our egos and offer ourselves as living sacrifices. We need to surrender and submit to the will of the ultimate other (that’s the literal meaning of coming to “the alter”).

That’s hard, vulnerable, and humbling. After all, when it comes down to it, we’re all the students in this classroom. Sometimes we’re leaders and sometimes we’re followers – but we’re always beggars at the table. At the end of the day it’s easier serve entertainment because that way we all get to keep our egos.

Technorati Tags: Bill Kinnon, Church, Hymns, Pot-Luck, Singing, worship

The Parable of the Little Girl and Her New Bike

Once there was a little girl named Alannah who never thought much about riding a bike until one day her teacher, thinking she was such a wonderful student, awarded her a vintage Schwinn cruiser complete with scoop-neck handle-bars and a sparkly banana seat. Alannah was overjoyed to receive such a valuable gift, but a little sad too, because she didn’t know how to use it.

Back home Alannah’s mom and dad and big-sister Judah assured her she could learn to ride in no time at all. Dad opened the garage and rolled out everyone’s bikes while mom gathered the helmets. All four of them walked their bikes to the school grounds where they’d have plenty of room to practice.

Once there, mom and dad taught Alannah the basics of bike-riding in the grassy area where it was safe and, sure enough, within a few minutes she was balancing on her own – but she was still a little shaky. That’s when dad said, “It’s time to play follow the leader. Mom goes first.”

They all climbed on their bikes and lined up. First mom, then big-sister Judah, then Alannah, and finally dad at the very end who roared, “Okay mom, lead the way!”

Mom rode ahead nice and slow so Alannah could follow, making big sweeping turns in the form of figure-eights and loop-d-loops. Judah stuck on her tail confidently while Alannah wobbled a bit and dad trailed behind calling out, “Great job Alannah! Turn the handle bars nice and slow…” Soon she was diving into the turns and carving big figure-eights like a pro.

Suddenly mom said, “Judah’s next!” and pulled sharply out of the lead sneaking to the back of the line. Judah eagerly took charge, heading straight for the obstacles on the basketball court. She steered daringly around hoops and between picnic tables, showing off her mad cycling skills. Alannah faltered for a moment behind the more aggressive leader, then quickly adapted. She learned to turn tight circumferences and thread tiny gaps. She stopped thinking so much and started having fun.

After a few minutes, dad called out, “Okay, Alannah’s turn!” Judah instantly swung around the back of the line and Alannah was now charge. Everyone watched her closely, wondering how she would lead. She headed through the picnic tables and aimed the whole crew back toward the wide opened spaces of the blacktop. She carved big figure-eights over and over again obsessively – and everyone followed – before peeling off toward the sidewalk and risking everyone’s lives under the narrow covered walkways.

Dad came next. He immediately pretended his bike was a Sopwith Camel and proceeded to chase the Red Baron up and down the playground making machine-gun noises while mom and the girls rolled their eyes and followed behind.

Then they started all over again. First mom, then Judah, then Alannah, and finally dad. The four of them covered the school in circles, spirals, and black rubber skid-marks until they finally pooped-out for good and headed back home for some well-deserved hot chocolate.

Technorati Tags: Alannah Coker, Church, Judah Coker, Leadership, Parables

Announcing Progressive Advent

Our family is excited to be celebrating the Advent season this year with our newly initiated church family, Ikon Community. In addition to daily Advent readings and exercises from December 1 through the 24th, we’ll also be gathering in the homes of different Ikon families for each of the 4 Advent Sundays leading up to Christmas.

Jenell and I have worked every year to develop practices that help us re-appropriate Christmas as a truly Christ-centered holiday, and we’re excited to take this next step with a new group of friends. What do you and your family or church do during this season to refocus on the parousia of Christ? Continue reading…

Technorati Tags: Advent, Christmas, Church, Gatherings, Ikon Community

Toward a Missional Economy, Part 3

In his excellent book, Walking With the Poor, Bryant Myers proclaims,

“The incarnation smashes any argument that God is only concerned for the spiritual realm and that the material is somehow evil or unworthy of the church’s attention.”

As we saw yesterday, Postmodern cultures seem to have already demolished this dualism and are experimenting deeply with economic practices that are compassionate, generous, and inclusive – thereby joining the material realm of economics with the spiritual realm of communitarian well-being. I’m convinced what we’re seeing are the fingerprints of the Missio Dei on these subcultures, especially with their embrace of an economics that bears a strong resemblance to the “rules of the house” found in passages like Exodus Chapter 16 and 2 Corinthians Chapter 8.

If this what God is doing, the missional Church will have to embrace at least three major paradigm shifts in order to join Him on that mission. Today I’ll touch on the first.

From Wealth Building to Gift Giving
The first major paradigm shift is from wealth building to gift-giving. Perhaps what is most scandalous about Exodus 16 is the total absence of individual wealth building. As hard as it is to believe, nobody was terribly rich and nobody was terribly poor. God simply provided for everyone’s needs. Every morning each family gathered their “wealth” and every night (having consumed it) they returned to relative poverty. In his beautifully meandering book, The Gift, poet and cultural scholar Lewis Hyde comments on this ancient Hebrew practice, saying,

“This is the ‘poverty’ of the gift, in which each man, by his generosity becomes ‘poor’ so that the group may be wealthy.”

The “poverty of the gift,” as Hyde puts it, is the economy of faith. Thomas Merton once said, “The essence of the Christian faith is the beggars bowl.” To put it brutally, we Christians are merely beggars. Each day we extend our empty bowl in faith and God meets our needs. Yet the economics of God’s house don’t stop there because the first rule of any gift-economy is that the gift must always move – and this is the rule in Exodus 16 as well. Gifts that are hoarded soon rot and decay like day-old Manna. So like the ancient Hebrews, as we encounter the needs of our friends, neighbors – and yes, even our enemies – we empty our bowls to enrich others, making ourselves, at the end of each day, merely beggars once again.

Here in San Diego, our friends Jason and Brooke Evans have embraced this shift by starting Make Something Day. Every year on the day-after-Thanksgiving – the largest annual shopping day in the country, also known as Black Friday – they refuse to buy anything. Instead, they make homemade gifts using stuff they already have. As friends, neighbors, and even strangers from all over the country have joined them they’ve discovered a surprising abundance of multiplied gifts in return – including creativity, gratitude, and friendship.

Questions:

1. Why do you agree (or disagree) with the Thomas Merton quote, “The essence of the Christian faith is the beggar’s bowl.”
2. What makes the shift from wealth building to gift giving so difficult? Why does is challenge our sensibilities so much?

Technorati Tags: Black Friday, Brooke Evans, Bryant Myers, Church, Economics, economy, gifts, Jason Evans, Lewis Hyde, Make Something Day, missio dei, mission, Wealth