Pine Ridge Church, a toddler church plant led by Tadd Grandstaff, has been doing some very creative outreach to their community this year. Friday, June 20th, they held their 2nd Annual Family Night at The Park - which featured FREE: amusement rides, inflatables, 4,000 hot dogs, games, music, premier of a Disney TV movie + more. Over 5,000 people showed-up for the event!

Back in March, they did a very creative and risky thing: they gave their weekly offering back to the congregation. Every attendee got an envelope of money with the directive to not spend the money on themselves, but rather to use it to bless someone in need. In this way, they helped the members of the church get used to giving and blessing others. It's AMAZING how such small amounts of money made such an impact on people. Read the stories here.

Topping it off, this Saturday, PRC will be subsidizing gas at a local Exxon (25 cents per gallon) - with volunteers on hand to wash windows.

What are your ideas for creative outreach?

We're in the middle of the OnePrayer series! Lots of people are saying positive things over at the OnePrayer blog. One of the messages that has been getting a lot of buzz, is Craig Groeschel's message, Make Us One. It's a pretty powerful message. It starts out with street interviews of how non-Christians see The Church: as divided, criticising and hating each other. What an appropriate message for the One Prayer series.

He ends with a bold series of assertions:

"if the Church were one, let me tell you what God could do: By Monday, starvation could be eliminated. By Tuesday, every person could have clean drinking water. By Wednesday, everyone with a medical need could receive attention. By Thursday, poverty could be eradicated. By Friday, every orphan could receive adequate attention and by Saturday, the whole world could not only know the name of Jesus, but they could see him ... if we became one ..."

Why do you think we're so divided? What do we need to do to be more united?

Francis Chan's church, Cornerstone Simi Valley, has been busting at the seems for years now. They were planning on building a huge building (obviously, right?), but decided instead, as a matter of stewardship, to build an amphitheater, a community park, office space for Children's Hunger Fun, and a Water Treatment Plant!

Why are they doing all this? The building project website says this:

"The idea of building an outdoor sanctuary rather than an auditorium sprung from a desire to save millions of dollars.  It came from a belief that God would rather we spend that money in other ways.  It comes from a thought that God would receive more glory from seeing His children sacrifice for others- namely, those around the world who lack basic necessities.  The idea then evolved into developing the property into more of a park-like setting that could be enjoyed by the church and community throughout the week.  In this way, we would be giving to our community as well as to the needy around the world."

Here's a video that shows more of their heart behind the project (they say some pretty challenging things):

"It is a church building campaign that saves money and creates a place that prioritizes serving the people outside of their church rather than self-serving their own needs." - Kent Shaffer (thnku Church Relevance!)

What do you think of this? The video says some interesting/controversial things? What do you agree with? What do you disagree with?