---Order and Disorder---Pt. 2

First...if you haven't read the previous post, please give it a run through... otherwise some of this might not make sense.

So I was referring to the Butterfly Effect and our part in the missio dei (see...I told you it might not make sense). I implied that you may see disorder and chaos in your life or others lives, the various spheres of life, society and culture. I also implied that you likely recognize that what you see doesn't line up with what God intended for life. But then I was saying that the big difference or huge task that needs to be accomplished may be significantly caused by what seem to be minute efforts.

To put it bluntly. Be encouraged. The seemingly small actions you take to be obedient to God may in fact be the first in a great series of effects that lead to great and wonderful things. For example. Your efforts at honesty and transparency in your relationships can break down thick walls of anger and bitterness in someone's life. Your individual efforts at praying for leaders can impact the way Government and Church leaders make decisions. Your efforts to clothe and feed people can bring people to a closer relationship with God. Your efforts to educate people can change whole societies. Your simple declaration of your faith in Jesus, saying "I believe in the Bible and in Jesus Christ" to those who do not believe can be the seed of many peoples death and rebirth in Jesus. The implications of this are monumental. Think about it. If you wake up tomorrow morning and take 10 minutes to pray and read Psalms 16 this may change your outlook that day and the way you talk and this may... through a series of chain reactions... lead to the renewal of a dying church in Brazil. [Don't try to figure out how... the point is that it could. If you are hung up on whether or not it could and whether or not I can prove it... leave me a comment and I will respond to it promptly. I don't have the space here.]

Now hold your horses. This is not to say that you are responsible for the final effect. You are only responsible for whether or not, and in what manner, you act in obedience. [You can breath a sigh of relief] What this does say is that what you do IS important, whether you see that it makes any effect or not. This is the place that I found Home Church in this last couple of weeks.

November 17th we held our annual Breakfast with Santa. At this event we invited a number of people, for those who responded we provided a free breakfast, a chance to have a picture of Santa, and an opportunity for free clothing. We also invited these people to a second event we called Santa's Workshop. At Santa's Workshop (december 1) children were given a chance to make a Christmas decoration, we provided Hot Chocolate and Candy Canes, we stocked and operated a Toy Store where everything cost a Nickel and we handed out the pictures we had taken two weeks earlier. The intent behind these events was structured for a specific purpose.

Event #1 was aimed at a widespread audience in the hope to garner an initial pool of people with which to make contact and focus further events. Event #2 was intended to continue to deepen the connection and relationship we had made with our initial contacts. There was a third event scheduled, but unfortunately no one responded to our invitation. The point of event #3 was the same as Event #2. We had no intent of evangelization at these points. Our aim was to build relationships and invite people to places and connect them to people with which they could feel a sense of belonging. But as I said... no one responded to our invitation to Event #3. So we are trying to figure out how we can continue to build the relationships.

But also. I want us, Home Church, to remember that our attempts at flapping our wings are by no means ineffectual just because I don't see any immediate result. This is a dangerous track of thought. As important as it is for churches to strive to be obedient practitioners and disciple-makers in the most effective, financial and resource responsible manner geared towards the greatest possible impact and highest number of changed lives, there is so much that we cannot know that a ministry cannot be evaluated on purely outcome based indicators. To function in a purely outcome based manner is unwise.

So. Even though our first two events, our Butterfly flapping, did not affect the grande responses we had envisioned, we have made good personal contacts with 5 families and moderate contact with 7 others. There may be 30 other families that we don't know the nature of the impact we have had and we leave them to the sovereignty of God. All of this being said. We made a faithful effort at obedience. With this I am pleased and I believe God is as well.