Over 6,000 bags of cookies…and the kingdom of God breaks through!

On Wednesday, I went with Tom “Terrific”, Tom Mahoney, and my mom, along with about 40 other volunteers from other churches and organizations to sort and bag cookies to go into the state correctional facility in Smyrna. For many years, the Newark church has baked cookies (this year nearly 400 dozen cookies) and for the past three years I have helped Tom sort and/or deliver the cookies, but today in this “Cookie Monster Heaven”, I heard some stories of the impact that was being made.

I was asked to tape up boxes so that the bags of cookies could be transported easily down to Smyrna. So as I stood there putting these boxes together a woman walked up to me and said “You’re from Tom’s church aren’t you?!?” I said, “Yes ma’am I am”. She began to smile from ear to ear and said “That church is such a blessing. Without them, things like this wouldn’t get done. You guys have a great church”. I smiled and said thank you and told her that we are so blessed that God has given us the opportunity to serve in so many different ways.

A few minutes later, Tom “Terrific” reintroduces me to a man that I met when I went to speak at the chapel service in the prison. He has been out of prison for about four weeks now and is attempting to find a job and get back on his feet. He is living down at the Sunday Breakfast Mission in Wilmington part of the week as well. As he was telling me some of his story, he began to tell me about these cookies. He said that the first thing he asked Tom when he got out of the prison was “When do you put together all the cookies for the inmates, because I want to help!” He went on to say that the bag of 10 cookies that each inmate got was such a wonderful gift because many of these inmates have no family or friends to come and visit them during the holidays and he said that it helped so many of them get through that time of year knowing that people loved and cared for them that they would take time out to make them cookies during this busy time of year. He said, “I know how much of a blessing these were to me while I was in there that when I got out, I wanted to give back and help give someone the same kind of joy that I received every year”. And so this man and I stood there putting together boxes and putting filled boxes of bagged cookies into the back of Tom’s van and tomorrow he will go and help deliver these cookies to Smyrna and he says to me “I have never felt such joy as I do right now being able to give back”. I looked at him and said, “Well my friend, you are experiencing the kingdom of God”.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen”. Jude 24-25

Bono at the naacp awards

a friend of mine linked to this from another site but I was so moved I had to share it here:

Signs of Emergence: Book Review

Signs of Emergence by Kester Brewin is another book put out by the “emersion” resources with Baker Books. Personally, I feel this is the best work yet.

The front cover is eye catching and gets you interested by the sub-title of “A Vision for Church that is organiz/networked/decentralized/bottom-up/communal/flexible/always evolving”. So if your into that sort of stuff you are pretty interested. However, he begins this books unlike others like this by starting with a chapter called “Advent”. In this chapter he begins like this: “…But before the church can change, before I can change, before anything changes, comes waiting. A pause. A rest.” These are some of the wisest words I have heard out of a emergent voice recently. We talk about change in the church so much and in a fast pace society it is refreshing to hear the advice to stop…to meditate…to see really where God wants His church to go. Brewin uses other writings, poems, and liturgies throughout the book but none as appropriate as the words of waiting (which you will have to get the book to read the liturgy). He also talks about Christianity being evolutionary and not just revolutionary, which to me is a wonderful way to discuss following Christ and gives a good balance to the revolution idea (which I think is a great way to describe what Jesus was doing, however it does not end at the revolution but continues to be a life changing process that continues to evolve).

From there Brewin goes into a great description of the emerging conversation and the idea of church in this time and culture. In part 2 of his book he looks to a narrative approach and gives a great narrative of who God is and what his mission in the world is. At the end, Brewin shows God comes into the dirt and mess of the world with the emergence of Jesus and gives a beautiful link of the first part of the book to the narrative talked about in the 2nd. This book reminds me a lot of Pete Rollins’ book “How (Not) to Speak of God” (which makes sense since Pete and Kester are friends…good enough that Kester can post something on Pete’s blog about how great “Signs of Emergence” is).

I highly recommend this book whether you are into the emerging conversation and discussing church and how it looks in this day and culture but also for the casual reader as well. His first chapter on Advent is worth the regular price of the book. The linking of the whole book together is worth reading the book to the end and the information inbetween it is insight and study that you will want to have for your spiritual walk. But again, the first chapter called “Advent” is one dramatic change for a book on the church and a direction that needs to be made…to wait and earnestly seek the voice of God.