we are an awareness church
(but not in the best of ways)


i'll have to give an assist to donald and tanya richards and sarah (and a damn fine burger from red robin) for this post since it was our conversation that was it's brainstorm.

i think i've finally put my finger on it. my mission moving forward as it relates to my church. for years upon years, huffman has been "doing" things. feeding homeless. taking less-fortunate kids shopping. singing (not loud enough). sunday school-ing. sending out missionaries. handing out bread and water and throwing frisbees. we've knocked on doors. paid for gas. washed windows. painted houses. built houses. prepared worship services. taken worship services on the road. played with kids. prayed with kids. played softball. played basketball. washed cars. baked cookies. made ice cream. all in the name of huffman united methodist church. and all of these things on the surface are good things. even great things. but the key question is this. as far as it concerns our surrounding community (not "regional" community. listen, i've been guilty of calling huffman a regional church too. i have. and at some point, maybe we were. we had a product that people were willing to drive to. that is not the case now. with few exceptions, our members do not live in the community surrounding our church. shoot, many of us don't even live in the same zip code. we drive now out of habit and tradition. we may have lived up to the definition of a regional church before. any one that says that now is rationalizing.), are these good and sometimes great things truly impactful? and by that i mean, do the ministries that we subscribe to, year after year, make a difference in the lives of people living around our church in a way that would make them want to spend extended time with us? my educated opinion to this question would be, "no."

and therein lies our problem in a nutshell. from where i sit, a born again insider that spent enough time on the outside to be able to see the forest and not just the trees, we are a church that has perfected ministries in awareness. and because i've said that i'd like to try and spin things positive when criticizing my church, i propose a new model for us to take a chance on. outside of necessary committees that are vital for the church to function (sprc, trustees, finance...i am sure i am forgetting a couple others...then again, if i am forgetting them, maybe they really aren't that important.) scrap every last committee that we currently have. no exceptions. all three pastors i served under and with could at least agree on the following point. at some point in the life of a church, for something, some ministry, to live and prosper, others may have to be put to sleep. and listen, folks, this is where humc is. we are spread so thin over, seemingly, a thousand different ministries that we can't even remember what our common goal is. and please, please do not say that we are disciples in action, making and growing disciples. let's face it, that was a cute catchphrase, but it didn't do anything that separated us from every other church. so, we should scrap every committee in the church, reinventory our resources (workers), and start over with two.

as i mentioned, we are pretty good at getting our name out there, so our first committee is our "awareness" committee. the mission of this committee will be to continue, with a renewed and fresh intent, what we've been doing for years. "getting our name out there." but we narrow our scope. if we want to "do something good" for god, let's not travel outside of our zip code. if we want to fix a house, ask someone on gene reed road. if we want a work project, let's not travel to bessemer. let's just ask huffman middle how we can serve them. keep doing what we are doing and doing well, but identify and target folks that can easily fall within the reach of the second committee...

and with this committee comes our shift in paradigm. the "follow-up" committee. it's very simple in theory, but something that we have executed more poorly than mike vick has nurtured his public image. our follow-up committee's primary focus would be to what? to follow up with those persons touched by our ministries practiced under the umbrella of our awareness committee. phone calls to huffman middle or high to see what's next on their "need" list. small groups that would be in place so that people that might be interested in discovering huffman outside of sunday morning would have an outlet to explore that interest. prayer teams that focus on the needs and wants of our community. our doors opened to community-help groups (aa, divorce recovery, special-needs children and adults, after school tutoring) so that we can work with and adjacent to other churches in the area that realize huffman doesn't have to be forgotten, just remodeled.

and we go from there. after meeting at our proverbial rendezvous point, we could "attack" with a new and rejuvenated sense of purpose without completely starting from scratch. we celebrate what we are good at and rebuild from that foundation and forget the fact that we have spent years putting on a glorified benefit concert.

it's just one man's idea. and may even suck. but i am going to start putting legs to my idea and see how it evolves. i'd love your input. your feedback as to how we can make this idea better and more practical. or your feedback as to how much you'd rather take your dog on a doggy-date with michael vick and his (can you tell he's on my bad side?) than climb on board with my ill-conceived delusion.

either way is cool. the only bad idea is no idea, right?