I saw an awesome billboard yesterday while driving down the interstate. The message was clear, but the material could have been better.
The board read “Trees Trees Houses Trees“ in big bold letters. It was for a new housing development. Instantly I knew what kind of neighborhood it would be. It would be one with more trees than houses, rather than all houses and a couple of trees. What a powerful picture. Espeically for new neighborhoods. Most new neighborhoods are cleared, cookie-cutter homes are stamped out, and a few “trees” are planted in the end. But this neighborhood was proclaiming a different message. The status quo was changing.
I was thinking about what that message would look like for the church. Here are some ideas:
Judge Judge Me Judge
Fake Rude Everyone Judgemental
Racist Rich Members Selfish
What if they looked like this:
Love Love You Love
Acceptance Forgiveness Neighbor Grace
Help Help Me Help
Food Shelter Billions Hope
You see, the status quo has got to change. The church has lived up to the expectations that society has set for us. It is time to change that. My heart is to see the Church be the hands and feet of Jesus. If people saw our churches and their mind went to the “billboard” like mentioned above, we’d have to knock the walls out to make more room.
This is a main goal of World Causes and our Free Chains campaign. The Church should be leading the fight against issues like child sex slavery. If we did, think about the impact we make. Not only for the innocent girls, but also on those around that have missed the point.
Some friends of mine are making this very impact in the heart of Columbia, SC. Midtown Fellowship is beginning to be known as the leader in the community when it comes to loving and helping the homeless. They are invited to city meetings about the issue. This is monumental and I commend Dustin, Lee, Alan and the entire team.
As a side note, I’ve been thinking about what my billboard looks like to others and what I want it to look like. What would your’s say?
At the end of the day will mark the first full week of our Free Chains campaign to end child sex trafficking. It has been a great week. Let me give you a few updates:
We’ve sold a dozen “All Should Be Free” t-shirts with proceeds benefiting our safe house in Nepal.
We’ve sold 2 dozen Free Chain key chains with proceeds benefiting our safe house as well.
We’re off to a great start. Thank you to everyone who is playing a part. So everyone knows…our initial goal is to raise $65,000. This is the amount needed to operate the safe house and all of their programs. This will help upwards of 65 girls and children to have a safe place to sleep, a place to recover, to learn job skills, to receive education and a place to feel loved.
Please consider becoming a monthly donor to support them!
After months of work, it is awesome to see some fruits of our labor. The Free Chains Campaign to end child sex trafficking officially started today. Our goal is to raise awareness and money to help prevent and rescue those suffering from this evil.
Our goal is to raise $65,000 to full fund our safe house for a year. Everyone doing their part will enable this to happen fairly quickly.
I’d like to thank everyone who has helped with this, including and in no specific order: Kirk for the cards, Joel for help with t-shirts, Chris for design, Dan for help with so much, Andrew for help on site, Betsey for encouragement, Chris for huge support, Colette for connections, Jeff for photo help, Trey, Kristen, Sarah, Jeff, and Betsey for great pictures, Dickson for support, Christine for passion, all team captains for help, Aaaron for design help, and everyone who is spreading the word.
I finished up “Loving God” by Chuck Colson while on our trip. Chuck has had a great influence in my life.
Chuck quoted John Calvin in one chapter and it has stood out to me in huge way. He said, “It is the first duty of the Christian to make the invisible Kingdom visible.”
WOW! That is awesome. What would it look like if all Christians made this their first duty? How would the world be changed? How different would culture look?
What are the ways that you see Christians doing this?
Here are a few that I’ll bring up:
Free Chains. Project we started through World Causes trying to stop child sex trafficking.
Eleho: Organization by a friend in San Diego making a difference for the Karen People.
Innocence Atlanta: Friend in Atlanta trying to end sex trafficking within the city.
Fermi Project: A group trying to help Christians impact and influence culture
Prison Fellowship: organization by Chuck trying to bring truth into prisons.
Ethur: creative group dealing with issues like character and consumerism.
What are some ways or people you know trying to make the invisible kingdom known?
-The IRS has been so gracious to us and approved World Causes as a 501c3 tax exempt organization! This is the first of hopefully many milestones. All gifts to World Causes (Free Chains) are now tax deductible.
-Free Chains shirts are selling quickly. If you want one, shoot me an email. 100% organic cotton. $20. Proceeds benefit out child sex trafficking campaign.
-I came 2 inches from eagling the same hole on the same day this past weekend. I played in tournament with my dad and brother. We eagled a par 5 and then we played another 9 after the tournament. After hitting the green in 2, I rolled my putt with in inches of another eagle.
Been a little while since I could sit down and post for all you loyal readers (hi mom!). This past weekend we were in D.C. for a friends wedding. My wife was a bridesmaid (she was smoke’n) and I got to hang out most of the weekend. Highlights from the trip:
Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) must have been very proud of Sergio Garcia yesterday. He confronted the brutal facts. After winning the TPC at Sawgrass, Sergio thanked Tiger Woods for not being there! He said it does make it easier with Tiger at home. I loved it. It’s true. Not many “professionals” would want to admit it, but its true.
This is an idea that if embraced could have great impact in many areas of life, business, and ministry. Confronting the facts of your current situation will help you make better choices and decisions. For World Causes we’ve looked at all our current human and financial capital and have seen what we can and cannot do right now. We want to do everything with excellence, which right now is Free Chains.
Check out his speech and think about areas where you need to confront the brutal facts.
Our new site is being finished up right now. It is simple but I think that it’s going look sweet. I’ll give a sneak peak. We’re looking into doing a couple of concerts this summer. Right now it looks like Greenville, Charlotte, and maybe Atlanta. More to come on that as the details are finalized.
Please help spread the word about the Free Chains Campaign. A child gets caught in the sex trade every 2 minutes. We need all your voices to help.
Yesterday I went down to my old stomping grounds of Atlanta for a meeting and to spend some time with my wife. Our first stop was to IKEA, the super super wal-mart of Sweeden. First off, I was not to convinced that it would be a good stop because of previous encounters with customer service representitives on the phone. (Their website said they had a piece of furniture, but when we called they said they did not. I ask why the website would say that and they said they didn’t know, but don’t come because we do not have it!). Talking about 2 different worlds. The inside was nice. The people were nice. And they even had a kiosk with maps of the store, pencils to take notes with, and rulers to measure the furniture if you left yours at home. I left with a totally different impression.
We next went to a lunch and got to hear from Donald Miller. He was interviewed by Gabe Lyons. Donald spoke about the idea of “story“. We all are part of a story and recognizing that will help us in our journey in life. Also, stories are what people remember. Learning to tell not only good stories, but the right stories. Some stories are not worth telling, but some are. Deciding which ones are crucial. That was a great thought for me right now will all that we’re doing with World Causes and Free Chains.
It was really cool to hear from Donald. He was very honest and real. If you have not read any of his stuff, you need to. Seriously, here’s a link. Get a copy. Read it. Discuss it.
It was also good to meet some new friends and connect with some other ones. It was great to have my wife with me for the day too.
Great weekend. Had a great time at church today. We took some friends for the first time and we had a good time. Perry talked about money. Always a scary topic, especially when bringing guests for the first time, but Perry knocked it out of the park. Key take away…God wants us to be generous. He said to visitors that “we don’t need you money. God has paid the bills at New Spring and will continue to do so.” But we are to be generous. It means we take our eyes off of our selves. Tough topic. Great talk.
A new week coming up. Lots going on.
-Our new Free Chain is getting closer. New design. Its going to be sweet.
-Red Salon lunch on Tuesday. Good to catch up with the many amazing friends doing awesome stuff. Daniel, Gabe, Jeff, Greg, Todd, Jennifer and some others will be there. I’m bringing Betsey too. Should be a great time.
-Couple new ideas are getting off the ground. Really excited about those.
-Time to be more efficient with my time. Going to guard my zone this week.
Greg is a social entrepreneur and founder of the non profit, World Causes. World Causes seeks to engage people in all sectors of society to fight the issues of Poverty, Injustice and Epidemic Diseases, by providing creative ways for involvement. Greg has led all the creative initiatives of World Causes, including the Free Chains campaign to end child sex trafficking. He is married to Betsey, a beautiful first grade teacher. They live in Greenville, SC.
