+ 4 days
+ the power of Jesus
= over 3 million dollars raised!?!
Why?
Because we believe that:
However, people are sold. 27million people, in fact.
There are more slaves today than in any other time in ALL of human history.
We focused on this at Passion 2012 in Atlanta which leads me to....
The first way that we worship differently:
We discuss tough topics.
We are not in denial that bad things happen. We learned about slavery, sex trafficking, bonded labor, children being raped, people being starved/beaten/devalued, etc.
And then we decided to
Plenty of Christians are criticized for not putting their money where their mouth is. Not us.
The next way we worship differently is...
We do give to the poor and needy.
Between the hours of 7pm on January 2nd and noon on January 5th, we raised $3,066,000.
That means that us - poor college kids - gave almost 50 grand every hour.
Why?
Because we believe that:
And we believe that we should be because we are called to...
"Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows."
- Isaiah 1:17
Oh, and did I mention we were in the Dome???
Yes, third way we worship differently:
We were not in a church. We were in the Georgia Dome!?!
So many, MANY people.
It was amazing.
My boss asked the neatest question: "Just look at all of them. Can you imagine what heaven will be like?"
Psalm 89:5 says
All heaven will praise your great wonders, LORD; myriads of angels will praise you for your faithfulness.And, last but definitely NOT least, the final way we worshiped differently was:
We sang songs like this...
Not quite the typical hymn (although those are also beautiful!).
Not my favorite BUT all rap is not crap and this guy's lyrics are solid:
You can't help but get pumped up listening to LeCrae; watch for the back-flip around minute 2.
And, what was one of the most beautiful moments in the whole conference, we sang "How Great is Our God" in many languages:
And this was the final song of the conference :)
This is the Jesus generation:
Join us to end this:
Worship differently.
Care.
Give.
Do Something Now.
The music may be different, the imagery may be different, but it is still the same basic format as grandma's religion. So some college students gave away a little of their (mom and dad's most likely) money, but did anyone change their daily lives? In the end everyone comes home and goes about their daily lives and the only skin off their back is a little less beer money.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of groups that churches raise money for, but nothing really changes until people can integrate these groups into their daily lives. If you don't bring these people into your daily lives there will always be the separation between the ministry and the group being ministered to. Separations don't build communities. If you really want change go find a slave/poor person/flavour of the month charity person, build some bunk beds, let them sleep in your bedroom and treat them as a sibling. That is a tall order and most people can't hack it, but if you treat it as a goal and go in that direction then at least you are in the right direction. Raising money is nice, but being hands on is in a whole different league .
Dear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI wish you would have revealed your identity and we could have a conversation. I agree with much of what you say - other than these students giving away their parents money. Many students gave of their own. While money seems like a cop-out in building communities, it is unfortunately essential in getting things done in our world (even for building bunk beds and bringing people into our homes).
While that is a great suggestion and I hope people do get hands on in tackling some of today's issues, I wish it was that easy. Having said that, my boss and several other families I know are trying to do just that - make these people their family. They are as we speak raising 10s of thousands of dollars to adopt some of these children to bring them in as a sibling/family member and I think that is great; someday I hope to be able to adopt.
As for my life right now, I agree that I must do more than simply donate money. That is why I have contacted several organizations and filled out their volunteer form. In addition, I have already signed up to go to another conference on human trafficking, inquired at my local Zonta club and I have organized a ride to our state's lobby day (Jan 24th) to address human trafficking. Hopefully some of that will help me to go in the right direction to ending this awful injustice.
It is my hope that many of the other students who were at Passion are doing similar things to plug in and bring change to this issue.
I do believe beyond our singing and surface level appearance that this Jesus generation is walking our talk.
Thank you, though, for your further encouragement to take our worship to a whole different league to affect change in the name of Jesus.