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Holy Undershirts!

April 1, 2011 in Africa, Community Makeover, Global Outreach, Partnership, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

Recently I got to sit down with some non-profits that are doing some incredible work all over the world. Of course, when I hear of someone doing something in West Africa, my ears perk up, the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, and I get all fuzzy inside. That’s how I felt when I heard about Sababu.

Sababu Conscious Clothing is dedicated to helping the people of Mali in West Africa by providing a sustainable employment opportunity. Each shirt that they make has a number on it that identifies who made the shirt that you purchase.  So you buy a shirt, get your number, go to their website and find out exactly who you just helped have a job. It’s a beautiful idea.

We have a great Engage Atlanta Community Makeover shirt being designed by Sababu. I would encourage others to use them for their events as well. Call them for pricing. They are really competitive when they are working with quantities for youth groups, special events, and things like that.

Right now they have a special promotion going called The Undershirt Club where you can get three new undershirts every three months. It’s a great deal. You can cancel anytime. Just click on the graphic on the right to fund out more.

It’s time to refresh those hole-ridden shirts you have on now anyway.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

 

Community Makeover 2011 Announcement

March 3, 2011 in Community Makeover with 0 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

COMMUNITY MAKEOVER 2011!

ATLANTA FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATION WORKING TO BRING CHURCHES, NON-PROFITS, AND BUSINESSES TOGETHER TO SERVE METRO ATLANTA

Dallas, GA, March 3rd, 2011 — Engage Atlanta would like to invite churches, non-profits, businesses, and individuals to come together to serve their community and participate in this year’s Community Makeover, July 21st – 24th, 2011.

Collaborating with churches, businesses, civic groups and other non-profits, projects will be selected with the help of local school systems and community leaders. Projects can also be submitted by individuals needing assistance, or may suggest a friend who could benefit from acts of kindness facilitated by this massive volunteer force.

Community Makeover weekend will culminate on the evening of July 24th,  with Celebration Services at sites still being determined around Metro Atlanta.
For additional information or to register your organization visit our website at www.engageatlanta.com.

Engage Atlanta began its first Community Makeover with eight churches in Paulding County in the Summer of 2008. Since that time churches and non-profits of different denominations and ethnicity from around Metro Atlanta have partnered together to serve the community. In the three summers that the Community Makeover has occurred more than 1,000 projects have been completed, utilizing more than 12,000 volunteers, and tens of thousands of volunteer hours.

80 churches served together in 2010 and several non-profits including, Habitat For Humanity, A Fresh Hope, Warehouse of Hope and Breakfree Ministry, involving more than 7,000 volunteers.

We invite you and your friends to come alongside other individuals across Metro Atlanta to join this effort in 2011.

Paul Richardson

 

Atlanta Churches Working Together

January 26, 2011 in Community Makeover, Engage Atlanta with 0 Comments

I’ve not had a chance to share this yet, but the folks at Bluefish.Tv shot and edited this video on Engage Atlanta and the Community Makeover. It is also being used by the folks at http://rightnow.org as a resource to leaders to help spur further conversation. I’m grateful that they would take the time to tell this story.

Atlanta Churches Working Together from Engage Atlanta on Vimeo.

A Structure That Reproduces

August 9, 2010 in Community Makeover, Engage Atlanta, Leadership with 0 Comments

Coming out of Community Makeover I get several common questions about how to pull together 80 churches, 700 projects, and 7,000 volunteers. The most common question is “How does all that happen?” In other words what is the leadership trick to pulling off a begin event. I’m not sure there is any one trick, and I don’t view myself as having any secret, magical leadership skills beyond anyone else.

Here are a couple of quick thoughts that can replicate any ministry or department, and not just a big event.

1) It’s not about a single personality. A fast growing ministry cannot be dependent on the person at the top. This is not just a Senior Pastor issue (although that happens), it’s about whomever the top leader is in the ministry/department.

The person who is ultimately responsible has got to communicate clear vision and values and give them away. When a church comes to me about participating in Community Makeover (CMO) here’s the first question, Do you have a leader strong enough to recruit and care for other leaders and to put a simple structure in place? The first thing you need is a leader of leaders who’s not afraid to replicate themselves at the risk of sharing glory, credit, etc. They need to know their strengths and have people around them to compensate for their weaknesses. Every leader will learn and share the same values and vision, and be able to speak about them in a way that it is clear they own the vision.

Too many churches/organizations stay small because everything has to run through a certain person. Sometimes we pretend their are checks and balances to prevent this by putting whole committees in place. In reality everyone is waiting for approval of the Head Deacon or whomever. This type of control freak leader stifles the growth of their area and a whole organization. The trap for this kind of leader is the happy knowledge that the organization has not grown past their leadership…and it never will.

2) The structure can’t be complicated. There cannot be layers of structure that create barriers to communication and creativity. If you care for people well you don’t have to use terms like “Chain of Command”. If you take the time to invest just a little bit relationally with people you will create an environment of mutual trust. This type of environment allows people to be creative, and allows the leader to be able to come back and tweak the creativity if needed.

Every volunteer should be able to get answers to their questions no matter who they ask, and every leader must be approachable.

CMO is not complicated. The entire structure of this enormous event can be boiled down into four parts moving together like Bono and the boys to help a church of 50 or 5,000 ‘rattle and hum’ along with excellence. It can be applied to any church environment whose desire is to allow leaders to lead.

When it comes to CMO having the right leader and a simple structure allows churches to own the event themselves. This is crucial. The goal of the makeover is not to connect people in different counties back to our non profit, Engage Atlanta. Engage does not want to plan the Outreach of any given church. The desire of Engage is to create an environment that allows churches to connect to each other and reach out to their own community the way they are being led to. Maybe the churches can even work together in the future. We create a catalyst opportunity for churches to engage their community with the love of Jesus Christ. The church is still in the community after CMO is over, and the church ‘makes disciples’ not the non-profit.

The desire is that getting people involved and recruiting new leaders through this event helps set up ministries to have greater success in reaching their community in the months that follow.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

Community Makeover By The Numbers

July 27, 2010 in Community Makeover with 0 Comments

There are some interesting numbers to run as it applies to Community Makeover. After several churches serve together in Douglas County, GA this weekend, here is where we will be.

70 schools in Paulding, Cobb, Douglas, Fulton, and Polk were served as part of our collective efforts. Close to 1,400 kids received school supplies. Many schools were supplied with school supplies, food, and clothing to be given to kids who show up in a couple weeks that still have needs.

We did approximately 700 projects. A large number of which could have been designated as having several different projects going on in the same place. For simplicity in communication we called them one project.

We have had approximately 7,000 volunteers serve.

Our website’s numbers in visitors, hits, and pageviews are off the chart! More than 105,000 pageviews!

Here are some other numbers we haven’t talked about anywhere yet. The following numbers combine our efforts from 2009 and 2010.

Through Community Makeover (after this weekend) and Flood Relief, Engage has spent between $200,000-$225,000 in the local community. That does not count what each church has done since they own the financing of their own projects

The dollar value of a volunteer in the State of GA is $19.75. In the last couple summers if 12,000 volunteers spent an average of just 3 hours serving on Community Makeover weekend that’s 36,000. 36,000 x’s 19.75 is $711,000

If you add volunteer hours to financial investment we are approaching 1 million dollars in help we have provided to the Metro Atlanta Community at a time when our community really needed it.

The most important stat, so far we have heard of 30 folks who put their faith and trust in Christ in 2010 alone. We believe this weekend is a catalyst event. In other words, most of the spiritual fruit comes later on as members of the community connect back to a local church.

The hottest weekend of 2010 could not stop the people of God from doing an incredible job loving their neighbor, and serving their community.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

More Than Falafel

July 26, 2010 in Community Makeover, Community Outreach, Engage Atlanta, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

Acts 2 tells us that the early church broke bread from house to house. That means there was lots of coffee, brownies, and perhaps an occasional Falafel being served. At least that is how we’ve come to interpret it in our churches. As small groups and house churches meet there can often be as much emphasis on the snacks being served as the prayer and worship.

Oddly enough, I believe these verses are about more than falafel. I believe they are about an invitation to be involved in each others lives, to share needs and hopes, and prayers. I believe they teach us to study scripture in community, and to not be afraid to ask the hard questions. I believe they teach church leaders to create environments where there can be no hiding, and no one gets lost in the crowd.

But I think there’s one more step to this. These verses always comes to my mind when I think of how the church should reach out to those around them. I happen to think there should be an element of our Outreach that goes house to house. I love street corner and open market give aways that we do to try and draw people into church. Those are great ways to create a presence in a community. However, when you go house to house you feel the tension and potential for a stronger relational connection to happen.

Now, I’m not a big fan of people showing up unannounced. Hospitality is not high on my gift mix. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest that you go cold calling and knocking on doors. What I would suggest is what a bunch of churches in Atlanta just did. They served their neighbors house to house.

We just finished hundreds of projects as part of Engage Atlanta‘s Community Makeover weekend. People ask, ‘Where do the projects come from?’ They come from neighbors who know about the needs around them, and just ask, ‘Can we help with the yard?’ ‘I heard you had an issue inside, can we have a look?’ ‘Do your kids need help getting back to school?’ All in all, it’s about not ignoring or just always driving by the houses on your street. It’s about stopping along the way long enough to see the needs, and then loving your neighbor as yourself.

If you live in Atlanta and you are feeling hungry, check out the Falafel King in Druid Hills.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

People, People, People

July 23, 2010 in Community Makeover with 0 Comments

This weekend thousands of people will engage in hundreds of projects throughout Metro Atlanta through the Community Makeover. A whole variety of people will participate from every background and ethnicity. The initiators of all of this are Christ-Followers from 80 different churches. It is not required that you sign a statement of belief and proclaim yourself a Christian to volunteer. In fact, many Christians have invited their friends with no religious or church affiliation to be involved.

It is important that EVERYONE involved know a couple of things that are at the heart of this. First of all, we are not doing these acts of service because we like to sweat in what is proving to be the hottest weekend of 2010. Though we can take joy in knowing that toxins are leaving through our pores in merciless fashion, that is not the reason.

We are doing this because our belief in Jesus compels us to serve our neighbors as his disciples. He told us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’ and to, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” (Jesus) He has left his followers on the planet to proclaim good news to the poor (whether physical or in spirit), freedom for prisoners (whether physical or in spirit), to care for widows, and reach out to those on the edges of society.

He didn’t say to just do this one weekend a year, but all of us getting out together sends a loud message that cannot be sent by one just one church alone. It’s not about my church, your church, or where you live. It’s not about your singing style or mine or what you think about that verse, or how you dress on Sunday. It’s about putting Jesus on display through his followers in a way that removes everything that could prevent people from seeing him and only him.

Even as we work and sweat and hydrate, the most important thing to remember is the example that Jesus set, life is about people. Jesus told stories about stepping back from your normal routine to pursue one lost, hurting person at a time. You never know where they are going to pop up, or when you are going to realize that they are missing. Doing a project is not only about hitting the nail straight or keeping the paint off the trim. Serving in the community is about people. It’s about showing love to the people we volunteer alongside, and to the people we are serving. It’s about being willing to stop long enough to look someone in the eye and show them kindness.

My hope is the thousands of people serving in Metro Atlanta this weekend through Engage Atlanta‘s Community Makeover will prepare the way for people to encounter the Spirit of Jesus in a way that they didn’t know existed. We cannot and should not just get the job done and walk away. Everyone should know that the heart of what we do and how we live is to share the love of God with people, people, people.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

This Thing We Do

July 15, 2010 in Community Makeover, Engage Atlanta with 0 Comments

For the third summer we are gearing up for an event called, Community Makeover. This is a once a year catalyst event of churches serving their community in a variety of different ways. It is the largest event on the calendar for a non-profit that I direct called, Engage Atlanta. This non-profit was started by Pastor Brian Bloye at the request of other Pastors in our community. That’s a whole different story.

What is amazing is who the ‘We’ is participating in the Community Makeover. This year we have 80 churches in 5 Metro Atlanta counties serving together on one weekend; July 23-25. The churches are all of different size, shape, color, and denomination. It is an amazing, unifying experience that becomes a catalyst to ongoing acts of service all around the region.
I get some common questions about this:

Why? We are motivated to put a different face on Christianity in this area. People on the outside of the church often look at people inside the church as being nice (most of the time), but also as a group of stingy, closed off group of people who like to keep their own environments under control by creating a lot of rules about who gets in and who doesn’t. That would not be an accurate description of the people in most churches, but those on the outside of the church are not always willing to come find out how great a church can be because of the stigmas they have. So we go out in the community to them.
Why would a church participate in this?
I’ll give the most personally appealing answer to a church leader who asks this question first. People are added to our own congregation because we do this. We know the stories. The classes that define our path to membership bare this out in the months following the event. I now have people stop me in public (because they know I direct this crazy thing) telling me they have become part of other churches who have participated with Engage Atlanta in the Community Makeover.
We have now heard stories of people coming to Christ who had a project done at their home or who came to the Celebration Service at the end of the weekend. It just doesn’t get any better than those stories.
There is one last part to answering this question. The world is now a flat, intricately woven, social place. That includes the church. If you think what happens at the church down the road doesn’t impact how people feel about you, that is a sad mistake. For far too long churches have privately cheered and puffed up in pride when they hear that other churches are not up to their standard, or that something negative has happened. That means more people will visit your church instead of theirs right? Wrong. It probably means they are going home and will try again years or months later at best.
People on the outside of the church see us as all being on the same team from the same God. It’s time we start acting like it.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

Announcing Engage Atlanta Golf Tourny

April 18, 2010 in Community Makeover, Engage Atlanta with 0 Comments

There are a ton of issues facing the Metro Atlanta Community. Hundreds of homes still need help from the floods that hit Metro Atlanta in 2009. Many are unemployed and need encouragement. We have families of service people at home holding down the fort, while their loved ones serve us abroad. School systems and counties are under funded and need people in their community to gather behind them…you get the idea. Hundreds of projects are being proposed for Community Makeover 2010!

We won’t be able to do it all, but we will get more done if we work together. Why not have some fun along the way?

With that in mind we are throwing a Golf-Tournament on June 18th at the Creekside Golf and Country Club in Hiram, GA.

We have a facebook event page you can go join by going here **Please forward that around, will ya?**

On that page you will find a flier that you need to print and take in to your boss and tell him to become a sponsor and put a team together.

Should be a lot of fun and will help us pull off Community Makeover 2010 happening July 23-25!

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

It Needs To Look Different

April 12, 2010 in Community Makeover, Community Outreach, Engage Atlanta, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

So back to the blog. I’ve been storing up some things I want to share so brace yourself over the next few days. Both of you!

Recently, I have had something brought to my attention in whole new ways. I knew this instinctively, but it’s being confirmed all over again. Many people that don’t know church vocabulary, don’t know the point of Christianity, haven’t been to church since that VBS when they were seven and grandma took them, are wondering the same thing. They would be called ‘Outsiders’, ‘Unchurched’, or ‘Seekers’; aka the people your church should try to reach out to.

Many of them are wondering, “Why so many churches?”

I live in the most ‘churched’ county in the State of GA. In other words, more churches per capita than any other. So everyone here follows the way of Jesus, right? 88% of the people in the county don’t go to church. At one point (and I think still is) the most ‘churched’ country in the world was Jamaica. So everyone there follows Jesus, right? Have you ever left the resort in Jamaica? You can get buzzed off the ‘second-hand weed’ down there. You don’t find more Christ-followers just because there are more churches.

I need to say I believe Church Planting is the best way to reach a community. In other words, adding more churches. I have tons of opinions on the issue as I’ve worn different hats on a church staff. Sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not. There are lots of reasons for Church Planting that I won’t go into today, but we need to realize something. All of the different buildings and banners, dress codes, and nuances are hard for people to wrap their minds around. All of these different styles look like competition to someone outside of ‘church-world’. We look like franchises from different companies instead of all being from the same headquarters. It seems to be confusing a lot of people in the churches too. That might mean Pastors are competing against each other, which I’m sure is not the case. :)

There are ways to look like we are on the same page, and still enjoy all the wonderful differences found in the Body of Christ.

We need to work harder to work together. I have seen that when churches show unity to the community that they are in, it brings down walls both inside and especially outside the church. Elected officials don’t feel like they have to tip-toe around other Pastors. Schools feel a freedom to call and make their needs known. I have begun to encounter more people who have said to me that they now attend a church that was involved in a unifying serving event. We call our attempt to show them something different, ‘Community Makeover‘(you can click on that for a little more info).

The NW Atlanta Community has literally approached us with more than 2,000 projects for CMO 2010. I seriously doubt we get them all done. In this down economy they are coming to a group of churches that have a reputation for working together, and asking for volunteer labor. Community Leaders are spoon-feeding us opportunities to engage people outside of the church. That is what happens when it looks different.

Tomorrow, I’m going to do something that I shouldn’t. I’m going to answer some critics. I’ve been getting slammed by all new people. Me getting criticized is not that big a deal. I’m nobody. I just need to share my heart on something.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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