Let the Revolution Begin!

Let the rEVOLution begin! One year ago we began to make plans for the future as a church at UCity, a future that expanded our ability and capacity to express love to our local community. We didn’t just want to love… we wanted to LOVE in a revolutionary way that made people stop and say, “WOW… that is amazing!”

We began by raising money so that we would be financially prepared to take action. True love that is unconditional is always sacrificial and it costs the giver something without expecting anything in return. For us to express revolutionary love requires us to sacrifice – our money, our time… our LIVES! And so we began with $750,000 in commitments last April.

Then we identified 10 groups of people we wanted to target our love toward. We prayed, fasted, asked for ideas, sought counsel and came up with the following groups of people that we felt were in desperate need of LOVE.

- Orphans in NC
- People with Disabilities
- Poor and Elderly
- Local schools (1 Elementary, 1 Middle and 1 High)
- Spiritual Outsiders (People who need a second chance)
- Families
- Hungry
- Local Neighborhoods
- Married Couples
- Distinct Communities that need a new church expression

With these targets in mind, I prayed for and recruited project leaders who had a deep passion to lead our church to go ALL OUT in expressing a revolutionary love to these groups of people - Leaders who loved and would sacrifice their time, money and life for the sake of their group. Within three months we had all ten ready to go.

Then we prayed and fasted as a church… for 21 days! We asked God to bless our desire to express His love to people around. We wanted this love to change people, to transform the landscape of our city, not just be another project. We knew apart from God we can do nothing of eternal value.

And then we launched… and we are going to be launching for a long time!

The first project launch was in February 2011 with the local elementary school that we have adopted (Wolf Meadow). We simply provided monitors and runners for their testing period. We filled 50 spots. And for a school that has a high percentage of free and reduced lunch children and wasn’t used to having much help… we definitely made a huge beginning impact. There are many more projects ahead with the schools, but trust needs to be established and we want to be responsive to the schools needs rather than decide what we want to do. You see that is what love does, “it does not seek its own.” It is others centered. For us to love the school means we need to be ready to respond as needs arise.

The second project was a workday to serve the poor and elderly in March. On this day about 80 people split into 4 teams to work on projects in our area. We contacted Cabarrus DSS to find out what needs they knew of that they could not respond to or meet. We built two wheel chair ramps, painted the outside of a house and did some much needed remodeling and painting inside another home. It was amazing to see so many skilled people pouring their lives into our community. And to hear the amazing responses of those we loved. This was just the first of ten workdays that we have planned for this project.

The third project to launch is a night to celebrate people with disabilities called The JOY PROM! This is happening this Saturday night. We have a team of over 220 servants (volunteers) who are ready to serve at this event. I can’t tell you how simply amazing this event is going to be. A full night filled with limousines, red carpet, dancing, three course dinners, care and community for a mostly isolated group of people. We have over 210 people signed up to come which doesn’t include their caregivers. I am expecting to serve over 500 guests Saturday night. I can’t wait. Video to follow soon! We want to love people with disabilities and provide them opportunities for community, but we also want to let their primary caregivers know that we notice and love them too. I ran into someone who will be coming to the joy prom with her son who is severely disabled. She asked when our church services were, because as she put it, “I think your church will have a place for him to belong.” Whoa! That just upped the ante! You see this isn’t about one night, but an ongoing commitment to LOVE … Revolutionary style!

So get ready UCity because more projects are getting ready to launch…

-Spiritual Outsiders (April 10th Launch)
-Families (April 16th Launch)
-Hungry (Early May)
-NC Orphans (Mid-May)

More updates to follow!

Love LOUD… Risk OFTEN… Hope ALWAYS,
David