I am switching it up and writing before going out, what else did i switch?

I don't have any inspiring quotes or words for y’all today, only excitement! I'm writing this morning in eager anticipation for this evening's God N Dogs. For months now, we've had two groups coming out on the street with us on a regular basis. Foundations young adult group, and the youth group from Colonial Heights Assemblies of God. They've both have shown great enthusiasm to serve and love! There's also been several others who have jumped in and have been helping and contributing in great ways! Carla, Bethany, Philip, the brothers Steve and Ted, my grandparents and cousin Dacota, and of course there is Pastor Ron and whole crew who have been with us for years! I am forever grateful to First UMC for allowing us to use their parking lot all year as well. As I said in my first blog post, our humble effort at changing the world has truly been an act of Kingdom work. So many different people from different places have been coming out to help this vision that Doug, Jim and I had for God N Dogs.

Tonight, I am excited that Foundations will be with us, but we will also have a new group coming. They're from my religious camp and have a goal to branch out and work alongside others to spread the joy of a relationship with Our Lord Jesus. Church of the Resurrection’s youth group will be joining us for the first, of what I hope to be many times, out on the streets.  

As I've said before, I wish in some way we would be able to bridge the gap between the poor in our community, and those who have plenty. I would also like us to have to goal of closing the great divide between denominations. I have no desire to make a non-denominational movement, but instead help folks focus on the commonalities we have and learn how to love and respect each faith walk as we love the world around us.

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Meditations and purposes.

All glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…..

    This is the first blog I have written in a long time. There is so much that I could report about, but this is not a place for me to simply state the happenings on the street. I is a place where I relate the work that is happening to the Kingdom of God.

    I have started a facebook page for God N Dogs and more and more people are wanting to help out with the ministry. I made a rough estimate last week of the amount of money that it takes to run our little outreach operation. I have thought about what happens if we lose some key folks that help out every week. We are involved with four different churches directly and indirectly involved with many more. We are pseudo-involved with two non-profit groups, though we are not non-profit ourselves. There is a lot of potential for growth.

    This ministry is not about me and it is not about Doug. It is not about numbers and it is not about notoriety. It is not even about feeding as many folks as we can. For me to even definitively say exactly what it is about would be to limit what God wants from all involved. So all I have to offer is ambiguity.

    This outreach is first of all about relationships. How ambiguous is that? Relationships with who? What kind of relationships? What is the point of the relationships? The questions could be endless. My hope, my prayer, and my conviction is to use this tailgate party to cultivate relationships that can bridge socio-economic gaps between people. Bring folks out of the burbs and into direct contact with urban poverty. I hope folks can become real friends. True friendship goes beyond just a weekly service of food or the occasional clothing donation. There is laughter shared and also help with bearing burdens. I want to take folks beyond talking about the homeless and poor and “them” or “they” and start referring to them as Angie and Ted. Humanize the poor and know them as a neighbor that needs to be loved as ourselves.

    I believe if this physical action of loving our neighbors comes to life, the spiritual relationships will begin to grow as well. It should always be a goal to grow in our own relationship with our God. Remembering that Jesus was real and the stories of Him come from Jesus being with the poor and the forgotten. Do we know what it's like to love someone who hates us? If you come out and get personal with folks, I promise you will have that opportunity. Do we know what it’s like to be friends with a drug dealer or drunkard? Jesus did, and if you come out and invest time, so can you.

This is what I believe ordinary evangelization is. Trying to purposely live out the gospel. The numbers, the promotion, the talking that goes on away from the streets is all…. just frivolous to me. I struggle with how organized we should or shouldn’t be.

And I am going to leave it at that.