What I Would Like To Do

I wasn’t sure what else to title this. “What I Would Like To Do” sums it up quite well. This is something I’ve actually given a lot of thought to. I catch myself daydreaming about it sometimes. Maybe God will allow me a way to do it someday.

What is it exactly? I’m glad you asked.

If I could afford to, I would like to work full-time for a Non-profit organization I would like to create.

The purpose of the organization would be to take on special needs projects chosen from a variety of Christian organizations and outlets, and then package their information and an action plan and then distribute those “action packs” to contacts within local churches.

You’re probably saying, “what?”

For example…

About a year or so ago, I heard on the Toccoa Falls College radio station about “Bibles for Iraq”. The radio spot told people about how for just a few months (right after the takeover of Iraq) there would be a short, precious window to deliver Bibles to Iraq. After this window closed, it would be unlikely that the Iraqi government would allow it to continue and the country would be closed off again. Now this was a fine radio spot, and I’m sure many a good person heard it. But I felt like just that radio spot was not enough, and if churches were really informed and presented with an action plan, that a ton of money for Bibles (I think they were only like $2 apiece) could have been raised. During my planning time at work, I created some flyers and posted them at my school, slid one under the door of the pastor of the church where my school was located and emailed the flyer and information to some others I knew who worked in churches. That was all I could do to disseminate the information. That was a very strong urge I felt when I heard about “Bibles for Iraq” on the radio. What I did after I heard it is a miniature version of what I would really like to do.

If I could create that kind of para-church organization, I could prayerfully pick out those types of projects that blip across the radar screen of Christendom from time to time, and take what is normally a quick sound-bite of “help needed”, and create a “do-able” plan for local churches. Things that could be a part of this action pack might be things like a PowerPoint presentation about the project, (either for myself to show, or better yet, for someone within their own church to show). It could include an informative, suggested action plan for each church on how to best present the need to their church. It could contain already printed packs of brochure-like handouts about the need. Basically I could do all the footwork for presentations and information distribution. I would get to know whom the contact Christians are in the local churches; so I would know who to go to with this information.

There are a lot of programs just kind of floating around hoping that some people will get on board, but no one to go around making sure it's getting done on a regional level, and taking care of obstacles that come up (obstacles that can cause some churches to abandon the project altogether). And I'm not talking about a Baptist organization either. I'm talking Christian...Baptist, Methodist, C&MA, Presbyterian, etc. No denominational lines, just Christians working together as one.

Basically, people are lazy. There are many people who are sitting in the pews, who mean well, and want to help…if you will just make what they have to do very obvious, very simple and plain, and as hassle-free as possible. I would like to create an organization that would take a handful of special projects and do just that. I believe it could often increase participation and effectiveness tremendously.

It’s kind of like when Tori and I were on staff at our last church and needed candy for the Fall Festival. If the only thing we did about that was mention it to our Sunday School class, we would never get much candy at all. So that’s not what we did. We had a festive-looking, elaborate box made, placed prominently in the main hall; we made an announcement during the church service several times, among other things. This way we received tons of candy. It’s not that the people didn’t want to give candy. They just needed presentation, prodding…and reminding. Then, the next time they were in Wal-Mart, they remembered to pick up a bag of candy corn and leave it in the car until they went to church next time. Churches have to make a concerted effort to really get something done; and I think that kind of an organization could help make that happen.

I would like it to be a non-profit organization. That way people and businesses would be more inclined to make a larger donation in order to write it off on their taxes. People would also give more freely to that kind of organization knowing it’s not the goal of the program to make any money. I would love to volunteer myself full time to it.

(Now for the imaginary future of my imaginary organization.) I could run it in my area. And then, eventually I would start another district in a nearby area with someone else being that area’s director. Eventually there would be several organizational districts covering the entire state. (Similar to what Child Evangelism Fellowship does.) Next step: every state has districts. Next step: International.

Big enough dreaming?

But really, I would like to do this someday…at least in my area. I feel like it is a very do-able thing…even for me; if I could only free myself up to devote my time to it. Working for yourself (not really for me, though), for free isn’t exactly easy to do. Maybe God will put a million dollars in my mailbox and I can quit work and get started.