Voting With Your Dollar

I've been reading a lot about creating and using sustainable businesses to bring about social change.  Jason Saul's book Social Innovation, Inc.: 5 Strategies for Driving Business Growth Through Social Change has allowed my liberal arts brain to get a dose of economic business stimuli.  Here's what I've learned so far...

-Businesses are more powerful (and wealthier) than government (hello, Apple).

-Businesses cannot merely be "philanthropic" as they continue on towards their goals.  The social change we hope for must be the inherent goal of the business itself 
(e.g. McDonalds cannot simply boast about how much they give to certain charities every year.  Through changing their business goals and strategies they must seek to bring systemic change to problems like obesity and low-wage jobs).

-The most influential vote we have is not at the polls in November, it is our dollar and where we choose to spend it.
Because as a customer, citizen, and contributor to society you earn credit/influence in the form of little green slips of paper.  And wherever you deposit those slips of green paper is where you are allocating your support for different companies.  You say, "Target, I like the feeling I get when I go to your store and purchase your merchandise.  Keep it up." Or, "Starbucks, I like the way you treat third world coffee farmers.  Keep doing what you are doing."


Businesses of our economy want our money (our vote).  It's our job to buy responsibly, carefully, and with integrity.  Take note of two final things: the best way to empower the poor is to provide work so that they can have influence and a vote, and the government cheats in a way because through mandatory taxes they can bypass the need to make the customer happy.


Just some thoughts from a wannabe economist.

I work as a Buckner Children and Family Services Community Minister, which means, I have many coworkers across the nation in local churches doing the same kind of community development work that we are doing at FBC Norman. Below is a story that one of my good friends and coworkers shared with me of her ministry at her local church in Knoxville, TN.

 She writes...

 "I wanted to share something with you that happened this week that reminded me about why we do this. One of our community ministry clients is an elderly, mildly retarded man who goes to our church and has NO immediate family. I assigned my MSW intern to work with him. One of her jobs has been to help him get on a budget, because he sometimes runs out of money at the end of the month. And when that happens he completely panics. I had him bring in all his bills so that she could go over them with him. In that process, the intern found out that he has been paying $118 a month to ATT for phone, internet and every other service they offer AND he doesn’t know what the internet is. A sales person at ATT ripped him off. The intern called and with Lifeline his bill will now be $13 a month. This week we really did make a difference in someone’s life."

This is what we do as Christ followers.  We advocate for the orphan, the widow, and the marginalized.  We are continuing the picture that Jesus began painting of Heaven coming to earth.

Tornado Relief

All these recent earthquakes and seismic activities have made me reflect on this past Spring here in Oklahoma.  It was eventful and terrible to put it simply.  A great friend of mine, Nick Napoli, put together this video of FBC's relief efforts the day after the May 2011 tornado outbreak.

It truly is amazing what a community can do when they work together.

I love dogs

My wife and I have a 1 1/2 year old, 90 lb., hilarious black lab.  She brings us joy in so many ways.  She easily forgets, forgives, is ridiculously loyal, and comforts us when we are sad.  I love our dog.

It is interesting to me how people get so carried away with loving our pets.  Sure sometimes (maybe most times) they make better companions than people, but would we ever truly put an animal companion above a human?  A human being who is made in the very image of God?

Well, we did.  Yesterday 75% of Norman said they want to spend $3 million to build a better shelter for animals.

I guess my real question is can a Christian really vote to pass a $3 million bond to create a better and bigger facility for animals in Norman while nearly 700 human beings are without homes?

When I drive south on I-35 from OKC and see the billboard that says "living on the streets is a lonely place" and there's a black and white picture of a dog (a German Shepherd I think) laying down on cement I want to say, "yes, living on the streets is a lonely place for my friends Roger, Paul, Dennis, Josh, Robin, Eleanor, Adam, Mike, Gary, Richard, Kayla, ...".  I could introduce you to 200 people that I know who would be incredibly thankful for a $3 million bond for a new shelter.

But would a shelter like that pass as unanimously?

Good Samaritan Style

A few months ago one of our ministry workers came running in the office saying that a man was lying in our West covered stairwell.  She didn't know if he was alive or dead, conscious or unconscious.  I was called to the scene, opened the door to the outside steps, and approached the extremely thin man checking for signs of life.  

He awoke in a fluster and said, "Hey Joey."  I was taken aback because at first I did not recognize him.  Through the haze of inebriation he explained that he attends our Sunday Lunch every week.

I found myself feeling extreme compassion for this individual.  He stays in a tent within a wooded area of the city and he is a slave to the substance of alcohol.  In his drunken stupor he found his way to our church, a place where I think he subconsciously knew he would be safe.  

Instead of calling the police (which would have gotten him nowhere but deeper in debt with fines he cannot pay) I sat with him, gave him crackers and water to sober him up, and one of our secretaries came out with a first aid kit to dress the gash on his forehead.  After our secretary left, he and I had a candid conversation about his addiction, his current life situation, and the truth of Jesus' gospel that calls us to a life of freedom and love.  I told him how important he was.

By sitting with him I hoped to show that he was not forgotten in society.  By giving him food and water and dressing his wounds we hoped to show we care for his physical situation (a new earth).  And by speaking the Truth in his life I hoped to remind him of who he is as a child of God (a new heaven).

We cannot separate the physical and spiritual needs of this world.  Jesus never did, so why should we?

Revelation 21:1  "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer."

Fundraiser, Raising Funds, Fund Raising

"Money makes the world go round."
I think it was the Dalai Lama who said that...maybe not.
All my life I have fought the urge to earn money because I saw how it corrupted people.
I saw money holding people captive in enormous houses.
I saw money numbing people to the injustices all around them with the promise of comfort.
I saw money make people do crazy things such as marry the wrong person and ruin family relationships.

But there came a time in my life when I realized money wasn't doing any of these things.  It is actually a form of idolatry that consumes people to a point of willing slavery.  I know now money is a tool.  Not that money is any less dangerous, because it is completely and life threateningly dangerous.  However, God uses it to make great things happen in this world.  He uses it as a agent of freedom when it was intended as a mechanism of bondage.

I am growing a beard and raising money for a great cause.
Consider showing that something you've been given (and could potentially ruin you) can be given away freely because you are not its slave.  Give to the United Way and support my stubble.

Click here to DONATE a few bucks

Let these walls fall

On a rainy day a few months ago...come to think of it...it might have been longer because "raining" is not something we've had a lot of lately.  So, on a rainy day in 2009...

No matter, it was a rainy day and an african-american homeless friend and I met at the church to read some scripture together.  We were both a little antsy at that moment so we decided instead of sitting in chairs for half an hour we would walk outside and talk.  That walking turned into a Jericho story.

We decided to walk seven times around the large red brick building we know as First Baptist Church Norman.  And on the seventh trip the ground began to shake and bricks became dislodged and began to fall...just kidding.  Nothing dramatic happened.  We walked around our church praying that the walls of our hearts would crumble.  We hoped for a revival of the Holy Spirit that would begin in us and spread throughout the church as we seek to be a demographically diverse congregation.

Praying that the walls of our lives would crumble to include more people who are hard to love.

A picture I took one Sunday morning out in front of our church.
Matthew 11:28