CompassionBloggers.com has launched.
Thanks to Ben Stewart (who built the entire site), Nancy Tyler (who wrote the great copy on the home page), Anne Jackson (who was a fount of great feedback/criticism/ideas/encouragement) and the small army at Compassion International who made sure I said and showed the right things the right ways. (Branding guidelines. Gotta love ‘em.)
So, please, go visit CompassionBloggers.com, read about our next blogging trip, link to us, tell us about yourself, grab a widget or banner and sign-up to blog for Compassion every month.
Thanks.
About two-thirds of the way through last night’s class, both the white angel and the little guy in the red suit, both hanging out together there on my shoulders like they do, came to an agreement. They agreed that I should walk crawl out of the class.
After agreeing upon this with one another, they then proposed it to Butt and Legs, which both seconded the motion almost instantly and passed it on to Lungs for final approval. On fire, as they were, Lungs heartily signed-off on the resolution and it was then forwarded on to Brain which, after much deliberation, vetoed the decision by the rest of me and the white angel and the guy in the red suit because of a last second appeal by Ego, which went something like…
“Fellow parts of Shaun, I just want to remind you that there are three cute girls presently drinking leisurely from their water bottles and barely breathing hard right over there. And look, one of them is actually talking about going mountain biking this weekend. And the one we call Wal-Mart mom is on her second class of the night and talking smack to the Cuban Assassin. They work out with Shaun’s wife, you know? It’s likely they will tell Shaun’s wife he’s a weanie. “
The left side of Butt then agreed to stop jittering. Arms agreed to keep going if they could do girl push-ups if necessary. Brain and Mouth pushed on only because the rest of me agreed to let them work together to insult the Cuban Assassin if he asked for push-ups again. He did. This time with one hand on a medicine ball. Brain was too oxygen deprived and Mouth was too busy holding in dinner though to insult as planned.
But I made it. The Cuban Assassin will have to rid his class of cute girls to bring this man down.
Just got off the phone with Jerry from Compassion International‘s office in Colorado. Jerry is working hard to help pastors talk about poverty in their churches and let Christians in churches know what they can do (with Compassion) about child poverty. This is called ”church engagement.”
Jerry was a paid church staff guy for years himself so he knows about budgets and denominational politics and deacons and elders and the hassle that trying new things and talking about poverty and money and finding the time to start new stuff can be sometimes. So his empathy alone is quite appreciated by the pastors he talks to I’m sure. But beyond empathy, Jerry is able to offer something new as of late - he can customize a church’s partnership with Compassion these days.
For example, let’s say a church is really gung-ho about fighting AIDS in Africa. Jerry can come up with a plan for partnering with Compassion that involves stuff like fundraising for an AIDS orphan program, buying drugs for pregnant moms with HIV, sponsoring children in an AIDS afflicted area, taking church folks on trips to work on a church ministering in an AIDS affected area and on an on.
This hasn’t always been the case. In years past, if a church was interested in partnering with Compassion somehow, about all they could do was talk about COmpassion one Sunday and pass out sponsorship packets...which is GREAT! but a lot of churches want to do more.
And, sadly, there are a lot of churches that want to do nothing. One mega church comes to mind. It has tens of thousands of members (no joke) and NO GLOBAL MINISTRY OF ANY KIND I recently discovered. They don’t fund one missionary. They don’t give to a denomination that spends time and money overseas either. What is this church collectively doing for the rest of the world? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.*
Jerry’s job is tough in such a case - a job I couldn’t do, to be honest, having seen what I’ve seen. Jerry loves these pastors. He empathizes. He listens. He understands. He kindly, gently even, asks them to let Compassion be any part - even the smallest part - of their church’s ministry to the world. He provides them with information, theology, customized opportunities - whatever’s needed - and then waits.
I don’t wait well. I don’t wait on self-absorbed pastors spending millions to broadcast themselves to “video venues” while spending NOTHING (literally) on the those outside their slice of suburbia well. I call them things like self-absorbed pastors spending millions to broadcast themselves to “video venues” while spending NOTHING (literally) on the those outside their slice of suburbia. I’m not a good person. I’m working on it. It’s harder for me to love the rich sometimes than it is the poor - and I’m supposed to love them both.
Thank God for Jerry. Really. Thank God.
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BUTT COVERING: This paragraph - and this entire post - is all me. This is a mega ginormous church I KNOW, not Jerry. It’s info I GOT, not Jerry. This is MY opinion/criticism/judgmental attitude and not Jerry’s. Nothing in this post represents Compassion International or Jerry or Jesus or any other members of the Trinity. And thanks for reading.
Thanks to Ubermadchen, Welcome To Married Life, Andrew Barnes, T.S. Harrison, Poke It With A Stick, Supersimbo, and Diapers And Stilettos for the recent link.
‘Preciate it.
I’ve added some new links to the old blog roll as well (which rotates - perhaps I should explain why sometime?).
Our Mission is a blog I found through Skribit about the intersection of missions and technology. If you want to better understand TLA’s like SEO and RSS, you’ll want to bookmark this one.
Guy Kawasaki doesn’t blog often enough. But I’m interested in anything he has to say about marketing and the internet. He was at Apple in the early days - charged with creating the “cult” of Mac. Done. Now he writes books and starts companies and helps other company-starters succeed.
The Pioneer Woman is what you’d get if Martha Stewart and Ansel Adams produced a (slightly) agoraphobic dog-loving rancher/writer offspring with an freakishly long tongue. Her site’s incredibly well designed. I mostly go there to read her confessions but you should poke around in the rest of her site awhile. There’s recipes, photography lessons and even a serial romance novel (sort of).
Who’ve you recently discovered in the blogosphere? Who are your favorite reads?
Motherless Mother’s Day weekend is over.
Becky.
Is.
Home.
Excuse me while I answer 1500 e-mails, write an article for some people, finish a web site and pee in private.
