Three months ago, I joined Project 7 as the Director of Community. It’s been a wild ride (In October, Project 7 Save the Earth Fresh Mint Gum and Feed the Hungry Peppermint Mints hit the shelves at 1,500+ Walmart stores.) and we’re just getting started!

It’s incredible knowing that for every product we sell tangible good is being done in the world.

Feed the Hungry products provide 7 meals in US communities.
Save the Earth products plant trees back into the earth.
Heal the Sick products provide medical treatments for a person suffering from malaria.
House the Homeless products provide shelter for a day for an orphan.
Hope for Peace products provide a day of counseling for a child of war.
Teach them Well products provide a week of schooling for a child in Africa.
Quench the Thirsty products provide clean water for a person for a year.

This holiday, as you pull together gifts for your loved ones, I’d love to encourage you to give products that give back. That way you’re giving not just one gift, but two. Not just products from Project 7 (although our gum, mints, and frac packs are the perfect filler for any stocking), but also from other great organizations like Krochet Kids, TOMS, 31 Bits, etc. Every purchase can make a difference!

Also, please consider blogging, tweeting or Facebooking to spread the word about Project 7 and other products for good?

Check out the Project 7 online store and don’t miss our holiday assortment.

What gifts that give back on your holiday list this year? 

Jeff Vanderstelt is a pastor at Soma Communities, an A29 church in Tacoma, WA. He is leader of leaders and a coach and trainer for church planters. His background includes music, business management, working with youth, training youth workers in North America and Europe and starting new churches. Jeff moved to Tacoma from Chicago with his wife Jayne to begin planting Soma. Jeff leads a Missional Community and the Downtown Expression, and he serves all of Soma in the areas of vision and teaching. Jeff is also on the Board of Acts 29, a church planting network. Jeff and Jayne have been married over 15 years and have 3 kids: Haylee, Caleb and Maggie. He loves watching movies that make you reconsider your worldview.

Jeff’s Thoughts

Anytime you put your hope, your sense of significance, your sense of purpose, is in anything other than God and what He has done, you are choosing the world over God.

What if we start looking at our neighbors as the lost children of God?

What if you start loving other kids like you love your own kids?

We want the world to know what our Father is like. He is the father to the fatherless.

Most of our lack of love for other people is our lack of understanding of God’s love for us. Do you truly understand the depth of God’s love? You can rest, you don’t have to hide, you don’t have to perform. His love is unfailing.

We are called to be advocates for the voiceless, like Jesus was an advocate for us. Stand in the gap. Exercise advocacy. But don’t do it out of a need for advocates. Do it because some advocated for you.

Don’t let need motivate you. Let the Gospel motivate you. We are not called to be replacement saviors for the world. They aren’t going to get any help if they don’t get Jesus.

You are never going to be ready. You don’t have what it takes. He never calls you to do what you can do. He calls you to do what He can do. So that afterwards you can say,”I don’t know how we did it. But I know God was in it. May He have all the glory.”

You will never properly care for the least of these unless you realize you were the least of these.

Don’t hold onto your life. Don’t be motivated by guilt or shame. Don’t ever think that you don’t have everything you need. Love in the same manner in which you have been loved.

Let love be our motivator. And Love be our method.

Dan oversees Together for Adoption and provides thought-leadership on the theology of adoption as a team member of ABBA Fund. Before co-founding and directing Together for Adoption, Dan was a college professor of Bible and Theology. He has also served as a pastor of family ministries. As one who has been adopted by God and has adopted two children, Dan founded Together for Adoption to equip churches and educate Christians theologically about orphan care and horizontal adoption. Dan regularly writes and speaks about the Gospel and its implications for solutions to the global orphan crisis. He is the editor and primary author of Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father, wrote the foreword to Heirs with Christ: The Puritans on Adoption by Dr. Joel Beeke and is a regular contributor to The Gospel Coalition Blog.

What does God really want from you?

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Psalm 82:3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Isaiah 1:17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
James 1:26-27 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. [27] Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Isn’t there something much more fundamental about what He wants from us?

Matthew 22:37 And [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

The question should actually be, who is God? God is the fountain of life.

John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”

We can’t live the Christian life well, if we think of God as primarily wanting from us.

To serve the orphan well, we must think of God primarily as a giver.

Psalm 36:1-12 Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. [2] For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. [3] The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. [4] He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil. [5] Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. [6] Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD.[7] How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.[8] They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.[9] For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.[10] Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart! [11] Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. [12] There the evildoers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise.

Why this Psalm at an orphan care on adoption? 

1. There is a strong connection in this Psalm to what Scripture calls sonship.
2. Drinking from the fountain of the Father’s lavish delight in us actually empowers us to live on the razor sharp edge of the world’s profound brokenness.
3. Orphans need Christians who feast on the abundance of God’s house and whom God causes to drink from the river of his delights (Psalm 36:8).
4. Christians who experience God the Giver are much better equipped to love the child who comes from or lives in the hard place.

What orphans need is Christians, who by the grace of God, drink the spirit that is “the Niagara” of Jesus. 

Let the Together for Adoption Conference session notes begin. First up was Darrin Patrick.

Darrin Patrick serves as lead pastor of The Journey in Saint Louis, Missouri, which he founded in 2002. Darrin also serves on the board of directors of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network as Vice President and is a regular contributor at the Resurgence. His passion is to help the church understand and live the gospel in the world. Today, The Journey runs eight services across four campuses and continues to aggressively plant new campuses and churches in the Saint Louis region and beyond. He has written two books, Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission and A Church for the City with Matt Carter. Darrin is married to his high school sweetheart, Amie, and they have four beautiful children: Glory, Grace, Drew, and Delaney. Darrin enjoys vacations with his family, basketball, good food, good books, good movies, and weightlifting.

“I didn’t want to build a good church, I wanted to build a great city.”

But here were the alarming stats in the city where he lives and works, Saint Louis: 15,000 single moms, 30% of people living in poverty, 3,000 kids in foster care, and 54% of kids not graduating from high school.

His Thoughts

Preaching and gathering (proclamation) was not enough. We needed to do something.

We are called to love God and love people. If you don’t understand that is a tension. You aren’t doing either.

There is a natural tension there. Jesus felt it too. Yet, He was never so distracted by the needs of people that He failed to reach their greatest need through ministry and teaching.

Social justice will distract people from the gospel. It is imperative that we nail down the definition of the gospel. And understand that we don’t do works to receive grace but because we have received grace.

If you don’t know your neighbors, don’t go and do something to change the world. Go, get to know them, and go meet some of those needs.

Social injustice is taking advantage of people who have little or no power. Social justice is meeting the tangible needs of those who have little or no power and fighting systematic oppression that drives the injustice.

What do we do?

The church is called, first and foremost, to proclaim the gospel.

You must not use social justice to avoid the offense of the cross.

Churches should plant other churches.

The “institutional” church must equip individuals who will become the “organic” church.

Want to learn more about missional living and our call as Christians to care for orphans in their distress?

Join me and a host of others from October 21-22 in Phoenix for Together for Adoption (T4A) Conference 2011. Over 1,200 people will gather together at Redemption Church (Gilbert Campus) to explore the theme Missional Living, the Gospel and Orphan Care. One of the primary objectives for this year’s conference is to create a forum to consider the good news of the Gospel, explore its implications for how we think about and implement orphan care strategies, and discuss how we can move toward greater collaboration as the people of God for the sake of orphans worldwide.

General session speakers include: Darrin Patrick, Tullian Tchividjian, Tim Chester, Bryan Loritts, Juan Sanchez, and Jeff Vanderstelt.

Worship Leaders: Shaun Groves, Aaron Ivey, and Jimmy McNeal

General Session Hosts: Shaun Groves and Johnny Carr (National Director of Church Partnerships at Bethany Christian Services)

Register for Together for Adoption 2011 Conference in Phoenix for just $75 Monday, July 25th, through Saturday, July 30th. This limited-time discount is over $30 less than the current early bird special.

See you in Phoenix?

On Sunday, thirteen friends (some of whom I just met the night before) and I came together from all over the United States, completed the San Diego Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon and raised over $10,000 for Compassion International.

It was the perfect day, the perfect setting, to run a half marathon.

The sun was out. The sky was blue. The air was dry. The breeze was cool. The bands were…loud. And the crowd enthusiastically cheered us on, right to the finish line.

And we did it. All 14 of us. We finished our race.

I don’t cling to my life for my own sake. The only value I place on my life is that I may finish my race, that I may fulfill the ministry that Jesus, our King, has given me, that I may gladly tell the good news of God’s Grace.

Acts 20:24 (The Voice)

Congratulations Jennifer, Tim, Marijke, Milyn, LV, Chad, Sarah, Cassidy, Christine, Jessica, Melissa, Lauren, and Scott! I loved finishing this race with you.

And a big “thank you” to everyone here who supported us with prayers, words of encouragement, and donations. We couldn’t have done it without your love and support.

What did you get into this weekend?

THIS SUNDAY I am running (Who am I kidding? I haven’t trained well at all, so I’ll be walking, or crawling.) the San Diego Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon to raise money for Compassion International. Several months ago, my friend Sarah and I decided to join forces, organize a team, and see what kind of funds we could raise.

So far we have raised over $8,450 dollars. $8,450 to free children from poverty in Jesus’ name. Yeah, I know that we are still way short of our original big hairy audacious goal of $20,000. But I also know that we still have time. Okay, we have 5 days. And I believe we can do it. Or we can get close. Or the very least, we can get closer.

So I thought I’d introduce you to the team and make one more plea for your help. This is Team San Diego. Go meet everyone, say hi, and give them some money and/or encouragement.

Jennifer Bryant

My name is Jennifer Bryant. I’m twenty-five years old and I just moved back to my hometown of Ada, Oklahoma. I worked as a tax accountant in Dallas for the past two years. I never thought I would be running a 5k, let alone a half marathon. But Compassion is such a great organization that truly changes lives. I’m thankful I’m getting a chance to support them!

Tim Farmer

My name is Tim Farmer and I heard about Team San Diego through Jessica and Melissa Sesma. I was born and raised in San Diego and I work for the City of Chula Vista running adult sports leagues. My brother tried to convince me to run the full marathon but when I labored through every step of my first training session of 1.7 miles, I decided the half would work just fine. I just began sponsoring a child through Compassion and thought it would be great to help raise money for a great organization. I’m looking forward to running next week!

Marijke Groat

My name is Marijke Groat. It’s pronounced Ma-rye-ka.    I currently live in Southern California, but moved here from Minnesota, Texas, and Alaska (in that order).  I sponsor two children through Compassion: Céline from Burkina Faso, and Hana from Ethiopia. I love music and songwriting, and I’m surprised at how much I’ve enjoyed training for this half marathon! Can’t wait for race day and I’m looking forward to meeting everybody.

Milyn Groat

My name is Milyn Groat. I live in San Clemente and just went back to work after 10 years as a stay home mom. I am currently working as a project coordinator.

LV Hanson

My name really is LV, with no periods. It¹s not an abbreviation - My name is LV, and I have a brother named DR. I have lived and traveled all over the world and has spent the last 4 years traveling extensively throughout the United States serving as the national ambassador for Catalyst, a movement of next generation leaders in the church.  In 2008 I made the move from Atlanta, GA to Orange County, CA to help launch Catalyst West Coast and quickly added the role of directing Catalyst Connect – a relational initiative focusing on smaller, more strategic learning environments for influencers who want to continue their leadership development journey. I am in the process of transitioning from Catalyst to join the staff team at Mariners Church as Pastor of Care and Recovery and am thankful to call southern California home.  A University of Colorado Alum, I played professional volleyball in Slovenia where I learned my 6’5″ frame was average in the land of Eastern European Giants.

Chad Markley

My name is Chad Markley and I’m married to Sarah. To pay the bills I own a IT consulting company, but my real passion is music and worship leading. Sarah and I and our two girls attend Newsong Church in Irvine where we’ve all been blessed to become a part of the community there over the past year. I walk our golden retriever, Flower, every morning and make it home for dinner (most of the time) every evening. I’m happy to be a part of the Compassion team and I am looking forward to the race on Sunday.

Sarah Markley

I’m Sarah Markley and I’ve had the privilege of co-captaining this team with Lindsey. I haven’t been able to train this spring as much as I would like but even so, I’m looking forward to Sunday. I’m a stay at home mother who spends most of her free time writing in some way or another either for my own blog or for other collaborative blogs around the web. I’m married to Chad, who will also be running on Sunday, and we have two daughters ages 9 and 5. When I’m not writing I love to hike in the canyons near my house in Orange County or take my girls to the park or beach.

Be sure to go meet the rest of team Team over on Sarah’s blog!

And if you’d still like to give toward my personal fundraising goal, click here.

A BIG THANK YOU to those of you who have already supported us. We appreciate every prayer and every dollar.

It is the question behind the questions.

Random Stranger: Do you have kids?

Me: Nope. I’m single. And childless.

Random Stranger: Ohhhh, what do you do?

Me: I work for Thomas Nelson. I do Corporate Communications.

Random Stranger: So, you are here for work?

Me: No, I actually took vacation to come. I am blogging for the conference.

Random Stranger: You blog? What is your blog about? Is it an adoption or advocacy blog?

Me: No, it’s not an adoption or advocacy blog. It’s about little of this, a little of that, mostly my random musings on life.

I know exactly what they are trying to make sense of. The question behind the questions. Why am I, of all people, at the Christian Alliance for Oprhans Summit? It is actually a question that I have been sorting through as well.

The Summit was my second orphan care conference. Yet, I still have no answers from people, or more importantly from God, on what I should be doing to help with this issue that is breaking my heart. Only some wonderful new friends and a piles of information on how passionate individuals are making a difference, changing the lives of children around the world, and living out the Gospel.

I had a great couple of days at the Summit. And as for the question behind the question, I’ll let you know as soon as I have the answer we’re both looking for.

Have you ever asked yourself, why am I here?

Relief: Immediate and temporary emergency aid in which a provider does something for a passive recipient. The Good Samaritan is a great example of a relief effort.  There is a provider and a receiver. When people are helpless, relief is the appropriate intervention. Relief is a handout of material resources. Once the bleeding has stopped, we need to rehabilitate or restore people to previous conditions.

Rehabilitation: Restoring people and communities to their pre-crisis conditions.

Development: The process of ongoing change that is moving people closer to being in right relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of creation. Development is not done to people or for people, but WITH people. The key dynamic is promoting an empowering process. This will typically be done around, or result in, some products or project.

It is harmful to do relief when the situation calls for development. But it takes a lot of time to do the proper approach. And we need to seek to do relief and rehabilitation as developmentally as possible.

Maintain a core focus. It is difficult for the same person/organization to do relief and development with the same community.  You create a dynamic that is hard to change.

Find your niche. What are other organizations doing in your neighborhood? What are their primary needs?  What are your skills? Fill in the missing gaps.

The vast majority of organizations do relief. Yet the vast majority of people in the world are in need of development. One reason organizations opt for relief work is that donors like quantitative, measurable, material things. Donors don’t typically want to hear about relationships. Once the relationships are in place, the rest is just the details. Jesus himself engaged in highly relational ministry.

Avoid paternalism, habitually providing resources or assuming tasks a person can provide or do for themselves.

Asset-Based Development – Identify what is there. Focus on what is there. Mobilize what is there.  Focuses on the capabilities, skills and resources of the person or community.

Assesses existing resources using “asset inventorying.” This is the first step.  What gifts, materials, resources, do you have? Let’s list them all. When you ask a person who has felt like they have no value, what are your gifts and abilities, you are alleviating poverty. The question in itself is poverty alleviation.

Blueprint Development vs. Participatory Development

Blueprint Development: Pre-packaged solution imposed upon poor people. It does it TO them and acts UPON them. McDonald’s franchising meets poverty alleviation. Can intensify marred identity/God-complex.

Participatory Development: More of a learning process approach. It works WITH them, including poor people as full participants in the selection, planning, execution, and evaluation of the intervention. Can help to eliminate the marred-identity/God-complex dynamic. This is a slow process of learning together.

Participation is not just a means to an end, but a valid end in itself.

Do you find yourself championing, giving to, supporting organizations who do relief work, rehabilitation work, or development work?

Dr. Brian Fikkert is a Professor of Economics and the founder and Executive Director of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College. Dr. Fikkert earned a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University, specializing in international economics and economic development. He has been a consultant to the World Bank and is the author of numerous articles in both academic and popular journals. Prior to coming to Covenant College, he was a professor at the University of Maryland—College Park and a research fellow at the Center for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector. He co-authored When Helping Hurts with Steve Corbett.

¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:17-18

We have to pour ourselves out on behalf of the hungry. We have to do something. The question is how do we do it.

Questions we ask before we donate:

1. Where is the money going? How much is going to overhead vs. actually helping?
2. What accountability is in place?
3. Is the gospel being shed?
4. Are the real needs of the community being met or is it just feel good?

But we should be asking this one:

1. How does the ministry answer…what is poverty?

The way that we define poverty determines the solutions we propose to solve it.

Human beings are relational. They are wired for relationships. It is out of these relationships that we create culture, art, and business. The fall distorts all key relationships (self, others, creation, and God). And poverty is rooted in broken relationships. The fall has also lead to a society of people who are prideful, self-centered, workaholics. They deny God’s existence, power and truth.

We are all poor because none of us are experiencing the fullness of relationships as God intended. Until we embrace the message that we stink, our efforts will do more harm than good. Our mantra should be, “You are not okay, I am not okay, but God is okay.” The good news of the gospel is that we bring nothing to the table, but God loves us anyway.

Good intentions are not enough. You can actually hurt poor people. People go off about Obama and the US government giving money to the poor, but the Church needs welfare reform.

Fundamental Equation for Hurting when Helping:

Material Definition of Poverty + God Complexes of Materially Non-Poor + Feelings of Inferiority of Materially Poor = Harm to both Poor and Non-Poor

I need Jesus Christ to rescue me from me. From my pride, from my need for accomplishment, and from my motives to solve the problem of poverty.

What’s the first step in poverty alleviation? Repentance. Of material understanding of the world.  (Not just our desire for things, but that we view the world in material things.) Of our pride and God-complexes. Of the “health and wealth” or the “prosperity” Gospel.

¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20

Poverty alleviation is about reconciling relationships: a process in which people – both the materially poor and ourselves – move closer to living in right relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of creation.

The verbal proclamation of the gospel of the Kingdom of God is central to poverty alleviation. The local church has a vital role to play because it is the body, bride, and fullness of Christ. We must address broken systems and individuals. When working at the individual level, it’s about people and relational processes, not projects and products.

How do you define poverty?