Here Is A Good Example Of What Church Is Supposed To Be

From an article on the Presidential Prayer Team website...

Leadership can be lonely. When you're the mayor, people who talk to you very often want something from you. That's why Portland, Oregon, Mayor Tom Potter was so surprised when one citizen - a prominent international figure - asked what he and his network of local leaders and activists could do for the mayor and the city.

"In all my years of public service," says Potter, "I rarely have people ask what they can do for me - and for our city. My answer, of course, was immediate - please help us solve the problem of homelessness."

The outcome two years later has been substantial. Over 25,000 volunteers have mobilized to tackle not only the area's homelessness but also medical needs, hunger, poverty, school cleanup and more. Their "Season of Service" (www.portlandcityfest.com/season_of_service) includes a dizzying array of projects to connect needy people with those who can help.

Luis Palau (www.portlandcityfest.com/luis_palau), the international Christian speaker who approached Potter, and his team have helped organize local churches to volunteer for the public good. Partnering with government and business leaders, the church coalition is producing impressive results.

Read more...

This is what I am talking about! The church being the hands, feet, and mouth of God here on earth. VERY COOL.

Reward In Full

This past weekend the StillWaters Jazz Band played at the Brian Center in Salisbury. It was a much different show than we had done up to that point.

You see, so far all of our audiences have been very supportive and enthusiastic. The guys at the NC Veterans' home last week were the most receptive and fun crowd that we have played for. The folks at the Brian Center couldn't have been much more different.

I can say this - at least the crowd wasn't hostile. We weren't having stuff thrown at us! However, there was almost no response from the residents. Most seemed unable to respond. It was very sad, and very difficult to play through. I guess I figured that most folks respond to music even when nothing else can get through.

We did manage to talk to a few folks when we took our break. Some were able to converse with us. Justin is so good at interacting with the people that we play for. I am amazed that a self-proclaimed introvert does as well at it as he does. I find myself hanging back far more than I should. He makes it look so natural - and I suppose it is because he genuinely does care for the people that we are serving.

And that gets right to the heart of the thing, doesn't it? We are there to serve and not to be served. We had a real gut check Saturday. Are we playing because we need an ego boost? Are we doing it just for the fun of it? Or are we doing it to serve our community? If we aren't doing it to show Jesus to our community, then we are missing the point.

It reminds me of the story in the Bible where Jesus talks about the Pharisees who enjoy making prayers in public so people will respect them and think that they are spiritual or those that appear haggard while fasting so that people will think that they are holy for their sacrifice. Jesus said that these people had received their reward in full. It is a good reminder.

There were many elements to Saturday's show that were difficult, but in spite of those difficulties we are committed to going back there again. Who needs our ministry more than these folks? We will find a way to make it fun and seek ways to break through, but even if we don't we really must return. I think it is what Jesus would do.

Excellent Post On Servant Evangelism

You should check out this very insightful post about Servant Evangelism (SE). Chris Elrod is the author and he did a good job dispelling the myths about servant evangelism.

People who are really into evangelism don't typically get Servant Evangelism. The key concept to get is "NO strings attached." People who don't get this concept basically use SE as a means to draw attention to their church or try to entice people to come to their church. You can tell these people because they are typically bummed after an SE project that didn't produce a body count. It rarely does.

Servant Evangelism could also be called "Stealth" Evangelism. You are usually in and out before anyone realizes that they have been touched by your ministry. Churches that begin SE programs with the notion that people will come flooding into the church the following Sunday typically end up disappointed. They don't get it.

Steve Sjogren, the founder of Servant Evangelism and the man who wrote the book that this blog was named for once said that they saw very little direct growth from Servant Evangelism - in other words, few of the people that they had served came to their church. However, oddly enough, the Lord brought equivalent numbers of people to the church because of their faithfulness to serve Cincinnati.

Don't do Servant Evangelism to swell your members' directory. It will never work like that. Do SE to make your community a nicer place. Do it to get to know your neighbors. Do it to give someone a smile. If you do, you'll find that you and the people who do it with you will grow. Who knows? As a result of that, your church probably will too.

SJB Concert Coming...

StillWaters Jazz Band has a gig on Saturday, February 16, 2008. We'll be playing at Dixie's coffee house on Main Street in China Grove. The time isn't certain yet, but it looks like we'll be there around 1:00 in the afternoon and will probably play for at least an hour. I'll post more details here when I have them. Come on out and check it out if you can. It will be a great opportunity to meet some folks, hear some decent music, and drink coffee. What more could you want?

What A Night!

Wow. The StillWaters family pulled off two very successful Christmas parties last night. Unfortunately I don't have all of the details to give you numbers, but at the party I attended the first guests showed up right at 4:30 and the last one left around 7:45. There was an abundance of food, and everyone seemed to have a great time. Hopefully, I will be able to entice the hosts of these parties to give us the full details here in the coming days.

Last night was also the debut of the StillWaters Jazz Band (SJB). By all accounts it was a successful outing. If you are bummed that you missed the debut you will have another opportunity to see SJB in action on Tuesday, December 11th from 7:00 to 7:30. They will be playing at South Rowan High School as part of a fund raiser for The SRHS Drama Club called The Coffee House. Come on out if you can!

There are also opportunities to continue serving our neighbors THIS WEEK. Lunch With Lois is planned for this Saturday, December 8th at 12:00 Noon at the Kirkers'. Lois is a sister in the Lord who is in the midst of a financial struggle right now. The plan is to enjoy lunch together and visit with her and then provide her with a monetary gift and wrapped Christmas gifts for her two grandchildren (a boy 10 years old and a girl 12 years old.) If you can help with this outreach and/or would like to attend let Carol know. (If you are not from this area and would like to help, church contact information is located at the bottom of the blog!)

Also be looking for information about an upcoming Servant Evangelism project that we are trying to pull together for Saturday, December 15th. The plan is to assist customers at the Salisbury Mall in getting their packages to their cars. The entire event including travel shouldn't take more than 2 hours (unless you want to fellowship some afterwards!) As I firm up the details I will post them here on the blog.

Man, who would have thought that serving our neighbors could be more fun than riding in a one horse open sleigh?

James 2:26

I suppose that it is a little tacky to quote yourself in a blog, but oh well, sometimes you write something that you just don't think that you can improve upon. Not to say that the following quote from my post called The Least Of These is Pulitzer Prize winning stuff, but it really communicates what I want to say in this forum as we are heading towards the big Christmas parties that we have scheduled.

I was talking with my good friend Bruce after the service and we were both feeling kind of low and worn out. We've both been taking a little time in the Lord's crucible lately, and I confessed to him how dry I had been feeling this past week - lonely for the Lord's presence. (Isn't it funny how being lonely for the Lord will often disguise itself as loneliness for other company? But I digress.) He suggested that it was perhaps the enemy's attack. We talked for a little bit longer and in the course of that discussion decided that we should do some servant evangelism together soon. (See Steve Sjogren's book Conspiracy Of Kindness.) As we left the church we passed a car broken down in the middle of the road. I stopped to ask if the guy driving needed help, and he could only answer me in Spanish. I went to park the car and looked up and there was Bruce! He was stopping to help too.

Now you need to understand, I am utterly NOT mechanical. I know next to NOTHING about what is going on under the hood of a car - especially if it isn't doing what it is supposed to be doing. However, Bruce is VERY mechanical. We helped the fellow to get his car out of the road and then Bruce went to work on the car. I used the little Spanish I knew to talk to Carlos and before you knew it Bruce had the car running again! We didn't say a word to Carlos about God or Jesus - I probably could have if I had been in practice - but as we went on our way I felt like I had just touched the Lord's fellowship for the first time in the past seven days. Is it possible that we met the Lord broken down on the road? Matthew 25:40 would seem to indicate that we did.

Perhaps God let me get dry and hungry for His presence so that I would sense it so clearly when I encountered it with Carlos this afternoon. If so, may He not let me forget to seek His presence even amongst "the least of these."

This encounter this past Sunday has stayed with me over the past couple of days. I am hungry to do a Servant Evangelism project between now and Christmas.

I actually have one in mind - not nearly as ambitious as the roofing project we did! I was thinking about contacting one (or several) stores at the mall and finding out when their busiest projected time will be one weekend. Then I will ask permission for a group of us to station ourselves around at the exit area cash registers and offer to assist customers with large packages to their cars. It is simple and inexpensive and will give us opportunities to talk with these folks while we are waiting for someone to serve and while we are serving!

What do you think? We would only go for an hour - two at the most. I believe the impact would be tremendous! All I need now is some volunteers. The two dates that I have in mind are the 8th or the 15th, but we could do it later too. I am leaning towards the 15th to give me a little time to promote the outing and to do all the planning. Please respond in the comments if you would be willing to help.

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
Matthew 25:31-40

Coming Soon To A Neighborhood Near You...

Stillwaters' first Christmas party of the season has been scheduled for December 2 at the Kirkers' in Windmill Ridge. As details become available and needs are made known we'll be reporting on it here.

The rest of the church was challenged to schedule their very own Neighborhood Christmas party. Different families will host the events in their homes and other church members will supply food, help in making preparations, help in staffing, and help cleaning up. Cool, huh?

Initial sign ups were this morning, but I haven't seen the list yet. As we have information about additional parties, you'll be able to find the details here.

Please be praying for each party and for each host. Please pray that the parties will be well attended and that there will be opportunities to share God's love and grace with our neighbors. Most importantly pray for our neighbors. We want to make it hard for our neighbors to go to hell. As we show them God's love in practical and fun ways we'll do just that.

It's going to be a great holiday season!

(A shameless plug for the Stillwaters' Jazz Band: if you need the SJB for your holiday entertaining, please let Justin know! Book now ahead of the Christmas rush!)

MORE (10/8/07)

The Carangelo family has entered the fray! Their neighborhood party will be on December 15th. Mark your calendars! More details as they become available.

First Concert October 20?

It looks like the Stillwaters Jazz Band will be having their first public (well, semi public) concert at the Vriesema's on October 20. The date is still soft, but start praying for it anyway! More information to be posted as we have it.

Want to know more about the Stillwaters Jazz Band and its mission? Read Justin's excellent post about it HERE.

Quote Of The Day

"Like the inhabitants of Bethlehem,..." (during the time of Jesus' birth)"many times we fail to recognize the hand of God on the people who pass through our churches and ministries. Whether it is because of their age, background, gender, or ethnicity, we miss the fact that the purposes of God are growing inside their hearts. When this happens, they do not receive the priority their calling requires, and we lose the blessing of participating in a divine moment."

- Jim Laffoon @ Our Daily Blog

Stillwaters Jazz Band

This is Justin Dickson from Jonathan's church... long time listener, first time caller. Anyway he asked me to write on this blog about the jazz band we have started. So here is the story.

About two months ago, our pastor hosted a sort of "family meeting" with we who attend the church regularly. He spoke on a few subjects, but the one that caught my attention was our role in the surrounding community. He asked questions to the effect of, "what are we really doing to help the people out there we don't know?" and "if we ceased to exist as a church next week, how much would the community of Salisbury really be affected?"

For some reason these questions stayed with me for the remainder of the day (I blame the Holy Spirit), and my wife and I discussed them afterward. I am an introvert by nature and the idea of helping out at a soup kitchen or something like that really bothers me... and yet I felt like I needed to do something to make a difference and do some ministry out there in Salisbury.

Now a few weeks earlier, we played a song or two in our church worship band with a sort of New Orleans jazz feel to them. We really enjoyed playing like that together and thought it would be fun to do it again some time. Personally, I have always loved playing traditional jazz and blues more than any other kind of music.

So eventually I had the idea to put together a small jazz band for the purposes of music ministry. The idea is not necessarily to preach from a soap box and ask for an alter call in the middle of every performance, but rather to show the Gospel to strangers by giving our time and talents to them for free. The hope is that people will turn their heads when they see a group of people give up their Saturday afternoon to come play fun music for the sick and lonely in retirement homes, hospitals, etc.

I hope the conversation comes up at least once every time we perform.
"So you're not getting paid for this?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"We don't really want to do it for money."
(blank, confused facial expression)
"This is just our way of showing that someone out there is thinking about you and cares. We're based out of Stillwaters church in Salisbury and we thought you might enjoy a little music today. That's all."

After four years of being a camp counselor at a Christian summer camp, I've learned that most people don't want to hear about the Romans Road or what is going to happen when they die if they don't get down and pray right now. Most people just need an honest hug, about 10 minutes of our time, and for us to just shut up and listen to them. They don't want a tract or a clever slogan on a church marquee, they want help and understanding as they deal with their dying little sister or divorced parents. They need to be honestly loved from someone who doesn't have an agenda or a pre-written script full of cliches.

They need to be loved the way that Jesus loved the poor and needy people he encountered. He didn't throw theology and a list of church membership requirements at them; he immediately diagnosed each individual's greatest needs (spiritually or physically) and met those needs through selfless acts of love and miracles. This is ministry, and it will never lose its power.

I hope ministry is exactly what we accomplish with our music. We have been blessed with enough talent and time to make it happen. We already have a good sound together, we're having a lot of fun in practice, and I hope to start getting out into the community in November. There are four of us right now: myself on trumpet, my wife on piano, Jonathan on guitar, and Gillon Jones on bass guitar. Gillon was a senior at South Rowan last year and played bass in the school jazz band for me, and he is now starting his career in the ministry. I hope you get the chance to meet him soon.

I will close with the verse from 1Peter that really explains the heart of this whole thing.

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others,
faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.”
1 Peter 4:10

Why The Name "Conspiracy Of Kindness"?

So, perhaps you are wondering about this unusual name, "Conspiracy of Kindness." What does it mean? Why did you pick this for the name of the blog for Stillwaters church?

Well, there are a couple of different reasons. I had originally thought to name the blog Philadelphia, after the church mentioned in the book Revelation, because the name "city of brotherly love" matched the mission that our church has identified here in Salisbury. I also liked the message that Jesus gave to the church at Philadelphia. However, and not unexpectedly, the address that would have contained simply "Philadelphia" was already taken.

As I was pondering another name that would convey what we believe that we are supposed to be doing, I thought of Steve Sjogren's book Conspiracy of Kindness. Here is a picture of the book with a link to Amazon:


I don't remember where I discovered this book, but when I read it, I was totally captivated by a church's plan to show the love of Jesus to Cincinnati, OH with no strings attached. They were going to follow their plan with no hidden agendas. If no one came to their church it was OK. If they didn't see anyone get saved as a result of their outreach that was OK too. They were going to intentionally continue to share the love of Jesus with the people of Cincinnati in practical ways regardless of the outcome.

They call it "Servant Evangelism" because their modus operandi is to do practical things to let people know that Jesus loves them. The first project that they came up with was to go door to door in downtown Cincinnati and offer to wash the businesses' toilets for free "to show them God's love in a practical way." The effect was electric. Not everyone would allow them to serve them, but it sure got people talking.

As they expanded their program, not everyone got saved. Not everyone came to their church. But because they had been laboring, many people (even some that they hadn't served) DID get saved. Many people DID come to their church (although many of them had never been served by them.) And the city of Cincinnati became a much friendlier place.

Ever since I have read this book, I have been convinced that its methodologies are worth emulating. What better way to be relevant to the society in which we live? What better way to help people understand who Jesus is and what He is about than by trading words for action?

The beauty of Servant Evangelism is that it doesn't require a head full of theology to be effective. Even the newest believer can be involved in it. Even the most shy can be a servant evangelist. Oftentimes, the people that are being served don't even know that something has been done for them until long after the person serving them has left, but the effectiveness is not lessened one iota by the lack of direct contact.

There is also a serendipitous benefit that derives to the one doing the Servant Evangelism: their courage and boldness to actually talk to others about the gospel is increased.

So, in the near future you will be hearing about plans for Stillwaters to "Show God's love in a practical way." One is in the works right now. Start thinking of ways to serve your neighbors. How would you like to be served? What would make your day if someone did it for you out of the blue? With a little planning, a little work, and a little money we will see our city transformed by the love of Jesus demonstrated through our hands.