Today was my last day of work at echo11media, the eLearning company that has employed me for the last year as I have worked to repay student loans before taking off for Germany. With finances in hand and counseling in the works (and reading assignments complete), my personal development plan is complete. As of tomorrow, I am a full-time campus minister.
Allow me a paragraph to reminisce about the old times as a software developer. A system of independent accountability and direction, a jump from school to leading developer on company products, and a close-knit group of employees – all-in-all a very close feeling to the work environment at a campus ministry. Aspects of work not like campus ministry: sitting at a computer all day and the notion that not talking to people means you are doing good work.
Happy? Yep. It is a sprint to Christmas to make 100%.
Scared? Check. 60% will not come easy in a slower economy.
Thanks to all the good folks at echo for seeing me through the year. Break out the big envelopes. Now support raising gets serious.
It has been almost a year since Globalscope ministers first moved into the university town of Birmingham, England. It has been 365 days of meeting students, building relationships, and knitting together a community focused on Christ. It is not a community of Christians – in fact, as you see in the video, many of the students are agnostic or atheist – but the presence of the ministry in their lives is leading them to reconsider the idea of a loving God.
This past week the team threw a party for the grand opening of their new building on campus – and had a turnout of over 100 students. Two days later, they held their first Bible Study. This is what Globalscope is all about.
This is our dream for Globalscope Germany in Tübingen – that we can get German students to start thinking in engaging ways about Christ’s message. It is only with your help that it will happen! Head to our support page to commit to help us make this dream possible!
I had the privilege of giving the talk last night. Check it out here: link.
Some highlights:
…those who were not as good at memorizing the rules were weeded out, until after years and years only those who had all the rules memorized were left to become Pharisees – the Top Gun of Judaism.
[Jesus was] a threat to the authority of Jewish law and to the Pharisee’s source of income. That’s a double-whammy.
And then Jesus shoots the moon when he sums up the ten commandments in two.
Following God’s commands now means our highest priority should be on showing God’s love to the world rather than condemning the world in God’s name for violation of God’s Law.
Support raising: Made 40% of monthly on Sunday morning. Next stop, 50%. How do we get there? I’m open to suggestions.
Other news: Globalscope England, known to the natives as Canvas is having their first Bible Study tomorrow. They have a huge following – an opening party with 100+ students last week – so we are looking forward to news and student reactions!
mighty joe espresso - proving coffee is recession-proof
It is as if nobody told Tucker’s caffeine addicts about the slowing economy. This morning finds me once again in Tucker’s Mighty Joe Espresso, support-raising HQ. Every single table in the joint is taken at 11am on a Wednesday morning, putting the Starbucks across the street to shame – and possibly putting Joe in the elite coffee leagues of much slicker establishments like Octane. Well done, Mr. Mighty.
Have you ever discovered a $20 bill in your coat pocket that you had forgotten about last year? If you haven’t, do a little experiment with me: put a $20 bill in your coat pocket and forget about it. It’s like an investment in your future happiness. Anyway, this morning I discovered a $100/month commitment that I had not accounted for in my percentage. Suddenly the 40% goal for week’s end that seemed so far away from 33% seems a lot closer. For those of you keeping track at home, I am now at 36%.
In order to reach this week’s goal, I have been making evening calls to follow up the letters I have broadcasted for the last few months. One thing I have learned to do is immediately identify myself as “Tyler, from church” to distinguish myself from the telemarketers who I may be competing with for that evening time. But perhaps the most surprising aspect of calling people at home is how very seldom you actually reach someone – out of thirteen calls last night, I reached four supporters.
Today’s goals:
Thank-you’s for those who have committed over the last week.
I have the materials for asking churches, I just need to nail down a partnership proposal letter.
Postcard follow-ups to the four supporters I managed to reach yesterday.
Seven more ask letters.
More calls tonight! It’s like counting down the seconds to a root canal!
In other news, I am speaking at Contact 6:56 this Sunday evening, here at Mighty Joe! I gotta get a talk together.
luckily, just like the deadly tsetse fly, the domain of the parking enforcer is limited to these colored areas
Scene: A dark, windy parking lot on the Georgia Tech campus. The noise of the 85/75 connector just over the hill. The asphalt is full of potholes and loose gravel. The wind whips around the back of the CCF house. It is a hellish landscape.
Our hero drives onto the lot. The car spins quickly into one of the many empty parking spots – he is here to park for a matter of seconds to run in and grab support-raising materials. It shouldn’t take long. Our protagonist engages the emergency brake and hastily leaves the car for the back door of CCF, but he doesn’t get three steps before…
Headlights.
Cue ominous, suspenseful tones pulled straight from Law & Order.
It is the Georgia Tech Parking department. The patrol truck driven by a man whose only purpose in life is to hand out golden parking violation tickets to as many unfortunate and unexpecting students as possible. The happiest moments in his existence were those when he has booted cars and hid in the bushes to watch despair come over the motorist returning to their immobilized automobile. He is a man who feeds on misery and drinks the tears of children, and tonight, he is on the hunt. His evil eyes peer out from behind the tinted glass of the Parking Department truck.
Our hero backs slowly to his driver’s-side door. He pulls out the key, slides back in behind the wheel, and quietly disengages the brake and drives down the road to a parking spot further away from the gaze of the Parking Department. His trip, which should have taken less than a minute, is now a twenty-minute ordeal.
FIN
Support raising: Another commitment last night! I am at 33%, looking to be at 40% by week’s end.
these are the people in your neighborhood, according to google image search
Perhaps one of the most important questions any ministry must ask itself is: “What demographic are we trying to reach?” For campus ministries, that question is, in large part, already answered: students. But the question goes deeper than that. Do you want to reach the students who are athletes? You are gonna have to engage in sports – perhaps by playing intramurals or by showing up to their games with posters and pom-poms. Do you want to reach the introverts and nerds? Set up the LAN, we are hosting some quality l33t Halo time. It’s all about finding in-roads to get engaged with the people you want to reach.
So what about Globalscope Germany? It just so happens that our house’s location on campus lies halfway between the sports hall and the computer science building. That’s right, we are poised at the intersection of Jock Street and Nerd Row. Our geographical location alone covers a wide spectrum of students that we can engage! If our house’s neighborhood represents the students that will be a part of the ministry, then be prepared to see German students from almost every walk of life gathering together in the basement we will call home.
Need more proof? Look at our team. We have Chandler, the man’s man. He is practically Jeremiah Johnson, mighty hunter, yes, frontiersman. He hunts deer and uses a straight razor to shave. On the other side of the spectrum we have myself, the nerd that compulsively triple-checks the hex codes in html code for our team’s web page. I hunt for bugs in software and don’t shave at all because I am physically incapable of growing facial hair. Between the two of us, our team could appeal to practically any student.
Not every mission team going out into the field can brag about the incredible range of people they will be appealing to, but know this about us: our diverse team will build a diverse community, and that’s a great reason to support Globalscope Germany.
As bad as economic conditions may be, it is really difficult to feel bad about anything when the weather is as beautiful as it is. Someone once said that if we smile, then the world smiles back at us, but I submit the opposite – that if the world would take this kind of initiative once in a while to show us some love, maybe we wouldn’t feel so down all the time. Come on, world. We’re tired of your B-effort.
It is late Wednesday morning at Mighty Joe Espresso, and the weather is fine: 60 degrees, clear blue sky, and both sides of the street are looking sunny from the corner table where I am sitting. I have now graduated to the elite “regulars” here at the shop – I am on a first name-basis with Eva (the owner, who is also on a first-name basis with me).
Today is a day of favors for supporters, for I will soon exhaust my initial list of people to contact for support. Tomorrow I will receive materials to start putting packets together to cold-call churches around the Tucker area to ask for their support in building a ministry in Tübingen. Anybody got connections?
By-the-by, over the weekend, I passed the 30% mark for raising support. Full-time support raising awaits. It feels good.
Pictured above is my first attempt at designing a logo for Tuckerfirst‘s yet-to-be-renamed contemporary service. What do you think?
Support raising: I will be speaking at two different Sunday school classes over the next two weeks. I have already contacted most people in tomorrow’s class, so I’m hoping tomorrow’s session will build some confidence, because, as FDR said: “After all there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith; you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear.” So good it’s almost scripture.
Also, I’m at 28% of my monthly. I want to be at (at least) 30% by tomorrow evening.
It is as if Main Street is crying. A suitably gloomy day for a gloomy outlook for the economy. As the pictures on CNN’s website cycle through shocked, frustrated-looking traders on the floor of the NYSE, people gather inside Tucker’s Mighty Joe Espresso to duck the rain and hypothesize about what changes to our accustomed lifestyles might be coming down the pike. Fewer luxury cars. Fewer McMansions. Fewer home projects that require an equity line of credit. All-in-all, it seems like the changes here in Tucker will require people to live a little more within their means, which isn’t a bad thing. But in a time of great uncertainty, one thing is sure: this is ideal German weather.
Today is support-raising day. Here’s where I currently stand:
I am at 25% of my monthly support with two commitments of unknown amount pending.
I have contacted almost everybody on my “list of people I know” that I drew up when I first started the blog.
I have several lunch appointments pending to talk about Globalscope.
I have two appointments lined up to talk to Sunday School classes at Tuckerfirst about Globalscope – on Sundays, of course.
So here’s what I see happening today:
Lots of thank-you letters. I’ve had a lot of commitments lately that need a lot of thanking.
Finish out my ask letters for my “list of people I know”.
Do some favors for Tuckerfirst and supporter websites if there is time.
As a side note… If you are like me, you really like lunch. Lunchtime is one of the most ingenious inventions credited, I suppose, to the Earl of Sandwich. The sandwich is a food that everybody enjoys – whether you are an AIG executive on a post-bail-out spa retreat or one Mr. J. Six-pack. Furthermore, the sandwich is so good that everybody can agree that time should be taken off from work in the middle of the day to enjoy one.
This is an open invitation to all readers, near and far: help me celebrate the sandwich by scheduling a lunch with me. Take some time off from the middle of your day. We will honor this most diverse of lunchtime foods by eating one (or two) and talk about, oh, I don’t know, Globalscope Germany. Any time is good with me.
A great book outlining a bold step away from the traditional methods and institutions of church: a church without membership, a church not based on congregations, a church not based on a weekly worship service. Great ideas, but the language Pete uses is way too professorial – and his suggestions for examples don’t fit the concepts he lays out.
Many of his ideas do fit the model of campus ministry that Globalscope follows: especially the ideas of a group without memberships and a ministry based more in informal social networks than in a weekly meeting. For a traditional church, though, ol’ Pete’s ideas are practically a revolution – provided they are implemented in creative ways that involve and engage current members of the church rather than abandon them.
