Unstoppable Batonism
By the way you may be tagged so be forewarn.
I'll start this with the parable of the mustard seed that Jesus taught specifically about faith. Jesus ever the masterful teacher uses a pretty nice imagery of something like a tiny seed growing into a large tree.
Most of us are familiar with that parable. I've even paraphrased it...as in "i'll plant the seed and watch it grow...and grow...and grow...yeehaw!" I've even used it in filmschool, where we were taught in screenwriting to introduce a plot twist or a new nefarious character subtly. Again planting seed...pretty common metaphor.
Of course in biblical stories a one-two-liners could in fact span over a period of time. In this case a seed takes time to grow. Who knows how long it took for the mustard seed to grow into this tree where even birds can perch on it.
A Question To Be Answered
Q: Is Unstoppable that seed?
A: Unfortunately as the way it was communicated Unstoppable is not that seed. More like asking for a grown tree in terms of the timeline. (For such details read the the Unstoppable brochure. Running the numbers means something like $64000/week of tithing for the next 3 years. (($10mil/52)/3))
Now back to the filmschool analogy. Have you ever watched The Sixth Sense? You know that plot twist at the end with the Bruce Willis character? Well M. Night introduced that plot twist, although somewhat subtly, with visual elements like the color red, and with certain dialogs between the kid and Bruce's psychiatrist character.
Unstoppable is showing us the plot twist without planting smaller dialogs and visual elements.
I don't know. At the moment, sitting here at the computer and typing this up it is a daunting, somewhat overwhelming task to be asking of the church. It IS daunting. Bold. Unnatural.
And yet that is where the beauty of our faith comes in. What is natural when you've got The Man above? Check out this passage, which is the subtheme of the Unstoppable campaign: "Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail." (Acts 5:38)
The leaders at GrX have thought this through I'm sure. Pastor Dave, as the big pastor, that's his job to raise capital. (For an interesting read on the business of the church I encourage you to read Bill Hybel's Courageous Leadership.) And while I will contribute what I can tithing-wise, it seems the burden will fall on the wealthy Christians at GrX. And I do agree with Wuboy's in that the ocean didn't form overnight.
Every rain drop, no matter how big or how small, contributed to those bodies of water and made them what they are today.
Given that to ask for a three year committment of the churchgoers to raise a big chunk of change is again daunting for the average Joe like myself. And yes, money is a sensitive topic. That mustard seed that becomes a tree...there are no money on that tree. But again that is no excuse for not contributing in any way.
Faith Without Action Is...
What can the average Joes like you and me do?
- continue to pray for God to help you understand the hugeness of that casted vision
- tithe what your heart joyfully tells you to
- maybe having fundraiser events and cast that vision again and again
- maybe having an Unstoppable concert at with the different sets of worship teams. Let CAM go wild. Maybe even charge a small price for admission.
- A Star Wars/Indian Jones/Back to The Future/LOTR trilogy movie night and ask for offerings
- talk to others—GrXers, smallgroup folks and ask for their thoughts...as demonstrated by clieu, snufericious, and wuboy!
What are your thoughts on the Unstoppable Campaign?
So the tagging starts ever so gently. Passing on the Unstoppable baton to:
chungmasterflex, jimmyjam206, warbladex, kitw, PANDY274, laurenine, jehin21, jingafet, patisserie and of course snadyrosa. You guys are good to go.
heh. Well that's one way that at the other end of this, we will look back and see if it was us or God :) I think there are some events going on that are in the works? I haven't heard much yet, but didn't you sign up for any of the committees? thanks for posting! yeah... I don't know how I will be a part of this, but we can remind each other to be praying!
yay! i'm looking forward to it! you know what else i am looking forward to? getting lunch with mike! this guy..................... :P haha.