Organic Faith

The Super Bowl of Generosity, Saturday February 5th

(Click image to enlarge)

Updates from the Think Tank

Last night, Organic Faith held it’s first ever Think Tank.  This gathering was designed to create a space where a team of people could get together and dream and plan together where Organic Faith might be going.  Thanks to our Soul Cafe gatherings, we had some extra tea and coffee lying around for the Think Tank to share as we envisioned together the future of Organic Faith.

We began the evening by simply praying and listening.  We asked for the Holy Spirit to lead and then waited until one of us was struck with inspiration.  After two and a half hours of Spirit lead inspiration we had some neat ideas and new convictions moving forward with Organic Faith.  

First, we want to become a community that is more committed to prayer.  We want to pray together more often, be people who are not afraid to ask for prayer, and encourage one another by writing and sharing prayers together.  In addition to this new ideas we also hope to implement in the near future a Monday morning and Friday evening prayer gathering as a way to frame our entire work-week around conversation with God. 

Second, we are going to hold another day of generosity at Bidwell Park.  We all agreed that we hope to share the gift of community that we have with others and what better way to do this then by having a party in the middle of Buffalo.  More information on this generosity day will be coming soon. 

Finally, we hope that Organic Faith can become a community that affirms the Arts.  We believe that artwork (be it poetry, music, painting, or something more off the radar such as event planning) in all forms is to be celebrated and affirmed simply because art is a sign of life and a reminder of the Resurrection.  We hope to become a community that is consistently creating and sharing these gifts with the world.  

So, there’s your recap of Think Tank #1, please feel free to join us next month as we continue to pray and vision where God might be leading us.  Our next Organic Faith Think Tank will be June 6th. 

The Super Bowl of Generosity

On Saturday, February 6th the people of Organic Faith descended upon Delaware Park with two missions in mind: 1) To play some snow football 2)To grill lots of hot dogs and give them away to passersby.

The idea for the event was past simply on the idea of generosity.  Organic Faith has been talking a great deal about the idea of generosity and how important it is for us to ask ourselves the question, "What has God given to me? How can I give that away?"  Since the Super Bowl was on Sunday, we wanted to play a game of snow football and give away some food to anyone who happened by.

Here is the story in pictures:

 

Here is what you can conclude from these pictures.  Conclusion 1: It was really cold on Saturday.  Conclusion 2: We didn't take that many pictures because it was so cold.  Conclusion 3: We didn't take any pictures of the football game because it was too cold.  Conclusion 4: We had a pretty decent turn out

Since it was sooooo cold, we didn't actually manage to give away too many hot dogs, but it was a great experience and a good practice run for a day of generosity when the temperatures are a little warmer.

The Organic Faith Generosity Experiment

A conversation that continues to float around at Organic Faith gatherings is the idea of generosity.  This past Tuesday at Pub Church we once again discussed the idea of generosity and furthermore, how we as a group could be generous.

The general consensus of the group was that we just needed to try something and so it is with great pleasure that I announce the Organic Faith Generosity Experiment.

Later today, I am going out to buy a piggy bank of sorts.  That piggy bank will become a staple at each and every Organic Faith event and each time the entire group will be encouraged to add money to our community’s piggy bank. 

Then, each week a different person will have the honor of taking the piggy bank home with them along with a journal.  During the week that individual will be encouraged to find ways to be generous with the piggy bank money as well as finding ways to add money to the piggy bank.  The only requirement is that they write about where the money goes should they give any of it away.

But that’s not all.  After a month of collecting money in the piggy bank we will spend time at a Pub Church to decide what to do with all the money we gathered that month, and to hear the stories of generosity that we have written down in the last month.  As a community we’ll not only be sharing stories of our generosity but we will be gathering together our resources in order to be generous in ways we only could have imagined on our own.