If your church is more than a few years old, and has a permanent building or rented storage space, you’ve got junk.
Why are you keeping that stuff? Probably because you will actually use it again. There may be a pack rat among you, one of those people who see something that very well should be given away or thrown out, but they think, “But we might need it someday. Right?”
You know the answer to that. Probably not.
Here’s your chance to take some of that junk and re-purpose it. Let me give an example of what I mean.
Have you ever seen those Cross in My Pocket things? Good intentions aside, they’re pretty cheesy. I guess the sentiment is a good one, but it’s kind of a pseudo-christian, “surfacy” thing (to me). When I came into my current ministry, one of the tasks I set myself was to search the entire building and get a handle on what material resources were available for use.
I found this huge box stuffed with the things, hundreds of them. Nobody knew where they came from or what they had ever, if ever, been used for. The wheels started turning. We had a special Holy Week communion coming up, so what was a way I could use these crosses, and get them out of our way at the same time?
Long story short, our entire communion time was cross-focused, dwelling on the sacrifice of Christ and the atonement bought for mankind. We had a cross up on the stage to draw everyone’s focus. On the way out of the gathering, everyone was given one of the crosses (all the paper backings with the sappy poem had been stripped and thrown out). The idea was for everyone to carry the cross with them as a remembrance, but not in the way its creators had originally intended. The cross became a tangible reminder of what Christ told us to remember. It turned out to be a beautiful time, one of the best communions I’ve ever experienced. I know of church members who still carry one around to this day. (We’ve still got gobs of the things left though.)
So, look around and see what’s been stored for use “someday,” and find a way to re-purpose it; hopefully in a way where you can dispose of it in a way that is not wasteful.
This post was an entry for Creative Chaos at ragamuffinsoul.com.
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