Experiencing Grace

We spent the month of November talking about money issues at Discovery. This was a big concern for me because we created Discovery for those who do not like church. One of my assumptions (accurate or not) is that people who do not like church think that the church is all about money (an assumption that the televangelists of the 80s certainly did not help us with). A series on the issue so early in our church's history seemed like it would just feed this thought.

We spent a week talking about tithing as a beginning point (for more great discussion on this issue, see Vince Antonucci's recent blog posts). We spent a week talking about contentment and another about debt. I challenged our community to do Dave Ramsey's second baby step and identify their debt with the smallest balances. The next week we would collect the totals of our community and get a pulse for how huge the problem was. The answer was shocking: over $130,000.

The last week of the series we discussed thankfulness. We asked people to put the information about their smallest balanced debt on slips of paper found in "the world's smallest church programs" (our bulletins). We spoke about grace, how God meets you when you do not expect it. I then announced that we were giving away our offering that morning, 20% to church planting and missions and the rest would be given to four individuals. We were able to pay off the debt of two individuals and pay $400 on two other bills. I believe that this experience is one of the defining moments in the first few months of Discovery Church. Such an awesome experience.

What are you doing to allow people to experience grace?