I know it sounds bad, I know it's got a terrible reputation, I know Renovatus isn't that kind of church. But last Sunday we went...DOOR KNOCKING!!! (insert looming music here)
It goes like this. Every Christmas we partner in something you might be familiar with called the Advent Conspiracy. Pretty much it's all about putting Christ back in Christmas (insert appropriate laughter here for bad corny joke). The Advent Conspiracy is about spending less, being more purposeful, sacrifice, and remembering that Christmas is more than just about consumerism and Santa Clause. One of the ways that we practice the Advent Conspiracy is through a warm clothing/blanket drive that we invite our neighborhood to partner with us in. So, last Sunday we went door knocking and invited our neighbors to join in the Conspiracy with us. Last year was our first attempt at doing this, and after last year we realized that our neighborhood was hungry to partner with us. Granted you get the occasional jerk, but in general people are eager to give, eager to know why we're doing this, and eager to wish us success. As a way to empower our neighbors to engage in the Conspiracy in a greater way we also give them an advent calendar that we've created. On this calendar each day gives a different suggestion for how to live out the Christmas season with purpose and intentionality.
Next Sunday afternoon we'll go around and actually collect up all the clothes and blankets and such. It should be fun.
I know door knocking is a faux pax, I know it's old school, I know cool churches don't do it...but...well, we love our neighbors and our neighbors don't seem to have the same disdain for what we're doing as we do.
Maybe next week we'll hold a gospel meeting.