“Good works and paying the bills”
Jan 19, 2009 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
This is the title of an article I was interviewed for by the AP: With recession threatening donations, churches balance good works, paying the bills.
It’s quite ironic because I am in a series at Riv where “Good Works” and “Giving” are both topics.
It’s a great article (and they interviewed my friends Devin Hudson and Dave Travis as well).
Here’s a bit about the Church of Greater Lansing Project:
On Christmas Eve, members of Riverview Church in East Lansing and Holt, Mich., were asked with little advance notice to join 25 churches in raising $40,000 to replenish the local food bank.
The church, which has an average age of 27, raised more than $20,000 on its own, flooring pastor Noel Heikkinen. He said year-end giving was consistent with years past, and the church projects a 10 percent budget increase this fiscal year, even as the state of the auto industry has church leaders worried.
“People catch a spirit of generosity,” said Heikkinen, whose church also supports an area AIDS network. “They get excited about being generous, and it spills out into other areas of their lives.”
UPDATE: Devin found the article in a few more places: Yahoo, MSNBC, Google News
Church of Greater Lansing Project
Jan 18, 2009 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Just got back home from the Food Drive with the Church of Greater Lansing Project. Wow. How absolutely cool was that?
There were thousands of Christ-followers (including a lot of Riv folks) there for one purpose: to give God glory by taking care of those in need. The grand total raised was $114,137! That money is all going to take care of people in the Lansing area and today the first wave went out.
In a couple hours, thousands of boxes of food were hand delivered, along with a simple question: “is there anything we can pray about for you?”
As a dad, it was awesome to see my sons ask that question to a total stranger as they handed them a box of food. Then, they would pray for the people by name when they got back in the van. I hope the memory of that sticks with them for a long time.
Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t praise Trinity Church for spearheading this project. Their team did a phenomenal job coordinating even the smallest details. Nice work, guys.
Here are some pics I snapped with my iPhone. I’m sure Brett’s are better.
Half of the crowd:
The other half of the crowd:
Loading trucks with food:
My boys helping load boxes on the trucks:
Tags: Lansing
The Church of Greater Lansing Project Update
Dec 30, 2008 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
On Christmas Eve, Riverview teamed up with about 25 churches to raise money to help the Lansing Food Bank. Our goal was to raise $40,000 between the churches to “Stomp out Hunger” in the Lansing area for the month of January.
At Riverview, we raised $20,378.68, which is absolutely mind-boggling! I couldn’t be more proud of our church! I will have the grand total from all the churches very soon and I will post that number on Twitter.
I think this whole thing is amazing. How awesome to see the churches in the Lansing area working together on such a cool project.
Now it’s time for the grunt work. On January 18th, we’ll be delivering food to 2000 families. We need your help, so please mark your calendars. Here are the logistics:
Eastern High School Jenison Field House – 220 N Pennsylvania Ave Lansing, MI
1:45pm – 5:30pm – please be there 1:45pm…apparently all churches aren’t “ish.”
We’ll be giving you more details during the services the next couple weekends.
Tags: Lansing
The Church of Greater Lansing Project
Dec 18, 2008 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
On Christmas Eve, Riv is going to team up with 20 or so area churches to do something really cool!
But I get ahead of myself…
Due to the economic crisis in Michigan, a 32% increased need has been reported by Lansing Food Banks in the past month. In outlying areas (where a lot of our people live), first time families requesting help is up by 18%. Many food banks are unable to meet demands and are turning families away.
Here’s the cool part: Lansing Mayor Bernero has asked pastors in the Lansing area to get involved in this crisis. Phil, the Lead Pastor at Trinity Church called me last week to see if we wanted to help. I told him to sign us up, because this cause reminded me of this verse:
2 Corinthians 8:14
Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it.
Many of us are still in a season of plenty. This is our opportunity to help those who are in need. We are going to collect an offering on Christmas Eve that is dedicated to feeding the needy in Lansing. We are purchasing semi-trucks of food from the Greater Lansing Food Bank and will receive food boxes to feed an entire family for a week or an individual for 4 weeks.
Our goal is to “Stomp out Hunger” for the month of January (which is traditionally a real tough month and this year will be worse). To do this, we need to feed 2,000 families. Our goal for this project is to raise $40,000 between all the churches.
I think this is totally doable. Please be praying about what you may be able to do to help on Christmas Eve. Also, we are going to need volunteers to help deliver food to the 2000 families in January. More info on that will be coming soon.
Tags: Lansing
