More on giving

Back on the 7th of this month I mentioned some blog posts Richard Beck was writing relating to a different view of giving in our churches. He thinks giving in a way that connects with what we're actually giving to might be more helpful than just tossing something in a plate or offering bag.

He's now onto his third post on the subject. Here's an extract:

The most spiritually formative giving that my church does occurs around Thanksgiving when, on Sack Sunday, the church members take up to the front sacks of food for our food pantry. By the ending of the service the stage is packed with food. Then, after the service, we all grab the sacks and take them to a waiting truck. I expect lots of churches have giving times just like this.

The most spiritually formative aspect of this is the shopping during the week in preparation for the service. It's particularly meaningful for my boys who love to go up and down the aisles of the grocery store picking out food items. As we do so we get to talk about giving, poverty, gratitude, and what all this means for someone who follows Jesus of Nazareth.

It's well worth reading the rest because of the way he develops this argument....

Shopping for God

James Twitchell is interested in "how religious sensation is currently being manufactured, branded, packaged, shipped out, and consumed."
Most of what we read about ministry leadership, outreach, and management is infused with a heavy dose of spiritual language. Twitchell propels the pendulum the other way. By removing God language, he asserts that most of what we assume to be fueled by divine power may actually be the result of market forces. Today, the way people choose a church is almost the same as how they shop for groceries.
The next generation won't accept the mega brand, because the "pastorpreneurs" that launched [megachurches] are mavericks, impossible to replace. The same market forces that created the megachurch may ultimately be its undoing.

Extracts from a review (by Skye Jethani) of Twitchell’s Shopping for God: How Christianity Went from in Your Heart to in Your Face.

Radical Christianity

Savitri Durkee was born in New Mexico. She directs the radical performance community known as The Church of Stop Shopping and lives in Brooklyn.

The Church of Stop Shopping is an activist performance group based in New York City, led by Reverend Billy (stage name Bill Talen). Using the form of a revival meeting, on sidewalks and in chain stores, Reverend Billy and the gospel choir exhort consumers to abandon the products of large corporations and mass media; the group also preaches a broader message of economic justice, environmental protection, and anti-militarism, protesting sweatshops and the Iraq War. While it continues its street theater activities, the Church has also appeared on stage, has toured internationally, and most recently was the subject of a feature length film by Morgan Spurlock called “What Would Jesus Buy”.

Zack Exley is a founder and president of the New Organizing Institute, and also works with ThoughWorks as a consultant to organizations, businesses and leaders. He directed the online campaign for the British Labour Party’s 2005 re-election, and was Director of Online Organizing and Communications at Kerry-Edwards 2004. Before that, he served as Organizing Director at MoveOn.org, and was an adviser to the early Dean campaign. Zack spent the 90’s working as a union organizer. He blogs at the HuffingtonPost and ZackExley.com. In September 2007 he launched RevolutionInJesusland.com, where he blogs from the road, scouting “the fourth Great Awakening”. This evangelical “revolution” is the fastest growing and most surprising of American social movements today. From mega churches to tiny country churches, evangelical Christians are rediscovering the “gospel of the God of the oppressed.”