Growing Smaller

I love the intimacy of Jesus’ ministry on that first Easter–with Mary in the garden, calling her by name. With Cleopas on the road to Emmaus, sitting down to break bread. The resurrection is BIG news, yes. But we know it now, even as people knew it in the beginning, through Jesus’ little way of love.

We know him in the breaking of the bread.

When I was in college a mentor said to me, “always remember: good things start small and get smaller.”

This is what we have seen, time and again. It is in relationships, in small mentoring groups with kids, in little classes inside of prisons, in small groups visiting little communities that we are being transformed. This is the heart of School for Conversion’s work.

Even still, where there is life, there is growth. Where there is good news, there is the natural impulse to share it. Where God is at work, we want to invite others to come and be part of it.

So we face the challenge of how to grow smaller.

The past year at School for Conversion has been a year of expansion–new course sites in prison, new initiatives with our youth, new community-based education opportunities. Hundreds more people have been exposed to SFC’s message. But we have refused to package our message “bigger.”

The only healthy growth we can imagine is growth that entails new people, new leadership, new communities. And the only way to sustain that growth is to have more relationships with people like you who believe in what we’re doing.

So, in this Easter season when we celebrate God’s Movement breaking out into the world, I’m asking you to please introduce your friends to SFC’s work and invite them to join us.

Here’s how you can do it.

My friend Tony Campolo recently had me as a guest on his TV show Red Letter Christians. I asked that we spend the entire 30 minutes talking about SFC’s work. So now we have a concise introduction to SFC and what we’re about that you can share with your friends.

Would you commit to inviting 4-6 people over, watching this 30min episode, and having a conversation about what we’re doing and why you’ve been a friend of SFC’s work?

To meet the increased staff costs of our growing smaller, we need to raise an additional $30K this year. While I’m deeply grateful for your generosity, I don’t expect you to give more this year than you have in the past (unless you’ve come into some new found wealth, in which case we’d be glad to help you share it).

What I would love to see is 1,000 new friends of SFC giving $30 each.

I’d love for us to keep growing smaller, one mustard seed at a time.

You can view the episode of Red Letter Christians online at:
http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/Networks/sublib/JC-TV/ec/dqNnhnYToHXk3eXVzQhHutbaLMI_nnGX

Or, if you’d like us to send you a DVD, just reply to this message with a mailing address.

Donations to SFC can be mailed to:

School for Conversion
917 Berkeley St.
Durham, NC 27705

Folks can also give directly to our programs through our website or online via PayPal.

Thanks to each of you for continuing to walk with us on this journey. Easter blessings to you and yours.